San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is more than aware that the highly anticipated state Supreme Court decision on Proposition 8 will provide the backdrop for his Sunday appearance as political grand marshal in the Long Beach Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade.
A ruling on the voter-approved gay marriage ban is expected by June 3, but the 2010 candidate for governor says that he has heard justices could decide as early as next week.
He remains hopeful that the court will at least protect the 18,000 same-sex marriage licenses already issued, but he would like something stronger, namely seeing Proposition 8 meet the hard snap of a gavel.
"This is, from my perspective, and good people can disagree, the greatest civil rights struggle, at least in my lifetime," Newsom, 41, says by phone from San Francisco. "I was born at the tail end of the last great civil rights struggle, and every day history is being made, and there are good days and bad days."
The morning after Proposition 8 passed was one of those bad days for opponents in San Francisco. Indeed, Proposition 8 supporters used video clips of a Newsom speech saying same-sex marriage was going to happen "whether you like it or not" in endless commercials.
"I am certainly humbled by the outcome of Proposition 8," Newsom says. "I was very humbled by it, but I recognize the work we still have to do. I am more pragmatic about it. I am very optimistic, but there is a 'hard-headedness' that we won't repeat."
Somehow, he adds, Proposition 8 unified opponents, who plan a measure seeking to undo it if the court upholds it.
"People have coalesced in a rather extraordinary way," Newsom says. "I wonder where we all were before November of last year...when people woke and realized what happened, not just in this state but in this country."
Sergio Macias, co-president of Long Beach Lesbian and Gay Pride, says the board asked Newsom to participate because of his commitment to equality.
"We just want to recognize him for his support of diversity and inclusion, not to mention that validation he has brought to the community," Macias says.
Though he never expected it to define his political career, Newsom found himself at the center of the cultural wars after her briefly legalized same-sex marriages in San Francisco in 2004.
The state Supreme Court upheld existing law and annulled those marriages, but an appeal led to the eventual overturning of the same-sex marriage ban last year. Gay unions were legal until Prop. 8 passed in November.
"People are still stunned that Iowa had moved forward while California had moved backward," Newsom says.
Newsom says that if the initiative is upheld by the High Court it will reveal the flaw of allowing voters to amend the sate Constitution with a simple majority.
Though largely out of his purview as mayor, Newsom is also calling attention to the fact that the U.S. Census will not count same-sex couples in 2010. He hopes to persuade Congress or the president to find a way to count them.
His appearance along Ocean Boulevard is not his first in Long Beach. The Lambda Democratic Club gave him a human rights award in October at an event on the Queen Mary last year, and he came here on matters related to Proposition 8.
"I saw how very strong the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community is in Long Beach and how many friends the community has outside of the LGBT community, meaning friends and supports and people not afraid to stand with them on principle," he says.
Newsom says he is following issues in the area, including efforts by U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and others to save the Long Beach-built C-17 cargo plane. The campaign for governor -- he is up against state Attorney Gen. Jerry Brown and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in the Democratic Primary -- should bring him back.
"This will be my first time participating in a Pride parade outside my city," Newsom says, "and I am looking forward to it and you'll be seeing a lot more of me down in Long Beach on every conceivable issue."
Enough with the gay agenda already. Newsom is a loathsome individual who cannot even faithfully honor his marriage. One of the reasons your paper, and all others, are on the brink of extinction is that you have lost the sensibility of a moral compass. Shame on you for kowtowing the the bigots who masquerade as "tolerant." A blind man could see that they are tolerant only of those who share their opinions and would in a heartbeat send the rest off to oblivion for disagreeing with them.
One of the reasons your paper, and all others, are on the brink of extinction is that you have lost the sensibility of a moral compass
FreeThinker - Now how did you arrive at that conclusion? Do you have any proof to back up your claim?