Bittersweet.

May 30, 2009 by Pastor Dan.

As I write, the big Meet in the Middle rally is going on at Fresno City Hall in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley. It is probably an ocean of LGBT/Allies faces, which must overwhelm this farming town at the heart of California’s agriculture. Fresno has been aptly described as the “raisin capital” of the world/US/California, but it does have some class. And from what we were told, the chamber of commerce was looking forward to this event.

Since we are prevented from being there today, I am reflecting back on Tuesday nights rally in West Hollywood, one of dozens around the state, against the California Supreme Court decision posted that morning. Since I am an out member of the clergy, I was near the stage in the middle of San Vincente Blvd., waiting for our 15 seconds of fame or coverage by Fox news, whichever came first. Probably some 20 clergy packed the stage for our brief appearance, after numerous speeches and appearances that included West Hollywood Mayor Abbie Land, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Plaintiff Robin Tyler, attorney Gloria Allred, Army National Guard Officer Daniel Choi, Drew Barrymore, George Takei.

Of all the them, the only one I approached to thank was Daniel Choi, and I hope his fight to stay in the service gets all the way to President Obama. (I congratulated Mr. Takai last June 17 when he and his spouse Brad Altman were the first couple in WeHo to pull a marriage license, which was then legal. They wed in September.)

The bittersweet here is that Carl and I are still legally married, thanks to the same Supreme Court that has now made legal marriage for new same-sex couples a legal impossibility. The people of California have spoken, after all. They may have spoken ignorantly, stupidly, vindictively, but this Court’s majority has decided that the initiative process may validly be used to ram a constitutional amendment through, with a 50% + one vote majority, to deprive an entire class of people of fundamental civil rights.

We will continue to argue whether it is a fundamental civil right. The presence of officer Dan Choi adds to the credibility of this, because he represents a parallel struggle to continue to serve in the armed forces (not a fundamental civil right, but a right nonetheless). So do the tens of thousands of LGBT people and their allies who turned out in many cities to protest the taking away of the right to marry.

Like many of us I’m puzzled by this sudden out-of-the-blue federal lawsuit to overturn Proposition 8, filed by two attorneys that I’m not inclined to trust (Theodore Olson and David Boies) with plaintiffs we’ve never heard of. Are they trying to throw the game by purposely losing in federal court and thereby foreclose on our ability to mount the right test case at the right moment?

But at the same time, it is likely that the Repeal of Proposition 8 will hit the ballot box before this mystery lawsuit will get its day in court. Along with other vital organizations, Love Honor Cherish was out in full force on Tuesday night in our town, taking the names of those who pledge to gather signatures this fall to put this matter back on the 2010 ballot. According to the Bay Area Reporter this week, a Courage Campaign survey finds that 83 percent of the respondents support a ballot measure in 2010, not 2012.

I think it has more than half a chance of passing, if we continue to put our faces on the issue as ordinary citizens who are next-door neighbors to people everywhere in California, even in Fresno.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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