How the GOP
helped bring gay marriage to California.
In 1978 former
California governor Ronald Reagan announced his opposition
to the Briggs Initiative, a proposed law that would have not
only barred gay people from teaching in the
state’s public schools but also allowed
administrators to fire any instructor suspected of
“advocating, imposing, encouraging, or
promoting” homosexuality. Prospects for the
initiative looked bright at first: Gay rights measures
were being rejected across the country. Reagan, who
ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976
as a movement conservative against the more moderate Gerald
Ford, was gearing up for the 1980 race and could
scarcely afford to offend the “family
values” crowd. Nevertheless, he declared that the
initiative had “the potential for real
mischief” and that “innocent lives could be
ruined.” Initial polls showed 61% of voters in favor
of the initiative and 31% opposed, but after Reagan
announced his opposition the public mood shifted
dramatically to 45% in favor and 43% opposed. The measure
was eventually defeated by over a million votes.
Exactly 30 years
later, another Republican governor of California
announced his opposition to an antigay ballot measure. Asked
on April 11 at the Log Cabin Republicans’
annual convention in San Diego about his stance on a
proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage,
Arnold Schwarzenegger said, “I will always be there
to fight against that.” He labeled the campaign
a “total waste of time” and predicted that
enactment of the amendment “will never happen in
California, because I think the California people are
much further along on that issue.”
Schwarzenegger’s position proved increasingly
relevant when, on May 15, the California supreme court
issued a 4–3 ruling striking down the
state’s same-sex marriage ban. The governor, who
previously had vetoed two bills to legalize gay
marriage, immediately put out a statement announcing
his intention to “uphold” the court’s
ruling. Gay couples began marrying on June 16, but if
the proposed constitutional amendment passes in
November—and it only requires a bare majority to do
so—California will not only join the 26 other states
that have constitutionally banned gay unions but will
achieve the dubious honor of being the first state in
the country to revoke previously certified gay
marriages.
Schwarzenegger is
the most prominent Republican opponent of the marriage
amendment, and his opposition doesn’t come as a
surprise to California gay rights activists,
especially Republican ones. Log Cabin Republicans
president Patrick Sammon points to the fact that the
governor has signed more gay-friendly laws than any
other current governor in the country. Indeed,
Schwarzenegger is just one part, albeit a significant part,
of a larger story, one that may come as a surprise to
many gays. As much as liberals have been at the
forefront of gay rights struggles across the country,
Republicans too have played a crucial role in bringing
marriage equality to California.
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