Posts Tagged ‘proposition 8’
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
Just minutes after the news came down from the California Supreme Court this morning, a crowd of hundreds on McAllister Street started marching past City Hall towards Van Ness Avenue. (Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Minister of Information Nate Ballard can be seen Twittering the scene camera left):
“Prop 8 – A Modern Day Witch Hunt”:
The marchers ended up at Grove and Van Ness to block the intersection with the intent of some them doing whatever it takes to get arrested. Supervisorial candidates Debra Walker and Rafael Mandelman linking up to block the street:
After a while, the people blocking the intersection started to sit down…
…under the pouring sun
Interestingly, all the cops in with the crowd blocking the normally busy intersection were “liason officers” familiar with the Castro area and the No on 8 movement. That’s quite a different approach compared to the way the SFPD handled the White Night Riots of three decades ago.
Non “liason officers” standing guard outside of the scrum:
The California Highway Patrol was up in the sky – there’ll be no embarrassment for them today, unlike this situation from last year when they didn’t know what was going on at first. Orbiting low and slow with the flaps extended a bit. It’s a living…
All the while, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera was hosting a news conference inside City Hall:
The names of same-sex couples adorn this sculpture in the South Light Court:
Dennis Herrera with Chief Deputy City Attorney Therese Stewart:
See what they, and others had to say about today’s decision, after the jump
(more…)
Tags: 8, 8 eight, arrests, assembymember, attorney, blocked, california, city attorney, civic center, civil, court, debra Walker, decision, dennis herrera, department, dept., disobedience, gavin newsom, grove, intersection, leland yee, marraige, mcallister, police, prop, prop 8, Proposition, proposition 8, rafael mandelman, same-sex, San Francisco, san francsico, Senator, SFPD, street, Supervisor, supreme, supreme court, tom ammiano, traffic, van ness
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Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
Now let’s see if we can get today’s Prop 8 timeline straight here. This morning, this bit went up on the Azire Times:
“Our source tells us that the [CA Supreme] court has now decided to push pack the ruling for another week or two fearing the ruling would inflame tensions if it ruled on the same date. He said, “‘tensions are running high and the court was asked to move date of ruling.’”
Fair enough. After that, came this “exclusive” from Towleroad.com”
Exclusive: SF Mayor Gavin Newsom Asked Court to Delay Prop 8 Ruling
Confidential sources close to San Francisco City Hall told Towleroad’s Corey Johnson that the California Supreme Court was prepared to release its opinion on Proposition 8 tomorrow, but decided to delay the ruling after a call from Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Newsom reached out to the Supreme Court and asked them to hold off releasing their decision so it did not coincide with the White Night riots,” said our source.
After that, came this:
STATEMENT FROM NATHAN BALLARD
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, MAYOR GAVIN NEWSOM
“Today a website posted an item that quoted a false allegation from an unnamed source: “Mayor [Gavin] Newsom reached out to the Supreme Court and asked them to hold off releasing their decision so it did not coincide with the White Night riots.”
“This allegation is not true. We have asked the website to correct the item immediately.”
Is this last statement a “pregnant denial“? Seems a little skimpy, anyway. Is this whole thing a big deal?
Only Time Will Tell.
Does the anti-Prop 8 crowd look the rioting type?
via Steve Rhodes Click to expand
Tags: azire times, california, communications, denial, director, gavin newsom, Gay, marriage, nate ballard, negative pregnant, porp 8, pregnant, proposition 8, rights, ruling, same-sex, San Francisco, supreme court, towleroad
Posted in Uncategorized, law | Comments Off
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
Comes word today from Quintin Mecke of Assemblymember Tom Ammiano’s office about a non-budget related vote in Sacramento. Of course Prop 8 passed by a fair margin in 2008 but judging by the pack of hyenas on the attack in 2009, it might not be around for too long a time.
Just saying. Here’s the latest:
JUDICIARY COMMITTEE PASSES RESOLUTION OPPOSING PROP 8
Ammiano Measure Supports Equal Rights
Today the members of the Assembly Judiciary Committee passed House Resolution 5 (Ammiano, D-San Francisco) by a vote of 7 to 3, which resolves that the Assembly opposes the implementation of Prop 8. H.R. 5 states that Prop 8 is an improper revision of the California Constitution.
On the job (on a State Holiday) in San Francisco, not too long ago.
“I am proud of my colleagues and their unequivocal support of equal treatment for all Californians. This resolution speaks directly to the fundamental rights of same-sex couples to have equal protection under the Constitution, rights that cannot be taken away by popular vote. I am confident that the Assembly will support the repeal of Proposition 8 and confirm the basic rights of all Californians,” said Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), author of HR 5.
Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, added “The Legislature again affirmed the rights of the minority to have equal protection under the Constitution. If Prop 8 is upheld, it would have a devastating effect on the hard won rights for women, minorities, and the disabled. We look to the court to extend equal protections of the law to all as the Legislature had done with the passage of the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act.”
The resolution points out that a revision is a substantial change to the underlying principles of the California Constitution, or to the structure of California’s basic governmental plan. As a result, pursuant to the California Constitution, the Legislature must initiate a change of this magnitude; it cannot be accomplished through the initiative process.
A similar measure, Senate Resolution 7, has been introduced by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco). That measure resolves that the California State Senate also oppose Prop 8 on constitutional grounds. It will be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee soon.
The California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the legality of the state’s gay marriage ban on March 5. On January 15, sixty-five current and former state legislators, including Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, filed a friend of the court brief seeking to invalidate Proposition 8 because it circumvents basic protections required by our Constitution and eliminates a fundamental right for a minority of Californians.
To be continued…
Tags: 8, City Hall, eight, equality, Gay, march, market, marriage, no, prop, proposition 8, protest, San Francisco, tom ammiano, yes
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Saturday, November 15th, 2008
Well, it’s on SFGate so it must be true: “Thousands of demonstrators” gathered in front of San Francisco City Hall this morning to voice their beef with Prop 8. That’s a big improvement over coverage from the MSM from just a week ago.
Famous blogger Phil Bronstein now makes light of the erroneous estimate of 1000 souls from the Chronicle / SFGate / the Associated Press at last week’s march down Market Street. Apparently, being off by an order of magnitude or two on crowd estimates is par for the course in the mainstream media. (Be careful, else you’ll wind up on the “Gay Enemies List,” and you don’t want to be there.)
Count for yourself:
What’s interesting is that there appears to be no effort to figure out what went wrong with the 1000 person estimate. It was a mistake made by one person that didn’t get caught by the vaunted multi-layer vetting process that separates newspapers from the Internets. Oh well.
Watch ABC News play it safe here:
One of the largest rallies was on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, considered ground zero in the battle for same sex marriage. Lesbian activist Carole Migden whipped the crowd up as she declared, “They hate us. Let’s just acknowledge it.” Then she pushed the crowd “to turn our rage into action.”
A partial speakers list:
Senator Carole Migden
Senator-Elect Mark Leno
Assembly Member-Elect Tom Ammiano
Amos Brown
Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis; Plaintiffs in the California marriage case
Mark Oliver and Clark Pingree; Representing “Mormons for Marriage”
Rev. Dr. Penny Nixon
Rev. Dr. Dorsey Blake
And speaking of SFGate, let’s take a look at a charming comment contained therein:
Oh well.
Off the protesters went up Market Street.
To be continued…
Tags: 8, castro, City Hall, eight, equality, Gay, march, market, marriage, no, octavia, prop, proposition 8, protest, San Francisco, yes
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Friday, November 7th, 2008
This march looked like it was going to be huge before it even began at 5:30 PM tonight, what with eight choppers above the staging area.
As was seen with the recent candlelight vigil, there’s a lot of energy left in San Francisco to fight 2008’s Proposition 8.
Click to expand:
Local pols Bevan Dufty, Jose Cisneros and Carole Migden were last seen heading towards the march. This one had the look of having tens of thousands of participants, when all is said and done.
To be continued…
UPDATE: CHeck out the Comments section for the test of some of the signs, courtesy of petshop grrl:
“- IT’S ABOUT C-I-V-I-L MARRIAGE, STUPID
- WANT ACCESS TO 100% MARRIAGE NOT 90% CIVIL UNION
- STOP READING THE BIBLE W-R-O-N-G
(STOP READING THE BIBLE G-N-O-R-W)
- THE COURTS ARE THERE TO PROTECT MINORITIES
- EVERYONE STRUGGLES FOR CIVIL RIGHTS
- SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
- WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY, CALIFORNIA
- RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY HAS NO PLACE IN CIVIL LAW
- MY MOMMY IS “CIVIL-UNIONED”… GREAAAT 
- “I’M MARRIED” “I’M CIVIL-UNIONED”:
IT SURE FEEELS DIFFERENT, DOESN’T IT?
- MARRIAGE ALWAYS WAS A CIVIL CONTRACT — NOT RELIGIOUS
- STILL WANT MY TAX-EXEMPT STATUS, PLEASE
- STILL WANT MY “WEDDING” PRESENTS — NOT CIVIL UNION PURCHASES
- SEPARATE CAN NEVER BE EQUAL
- SECOND-CLASS CIVIL UNIONS — NOT!
- I CAN’T TALK ABOUT MY TWO MOMMYS IN KINDERGARTEN CLASS
- SHARE, SHARE MARRIAGE
- 48 TO 52%
A BEAR MAJORITY IS BALANCE?”
Tags: 8, castro, City Hall, dolores park, eight, equality, Gay, market, marriage, no, prop, proposition 8, San Francisco, vigil, yes
Posted in politics | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
A large crowd gathered at the steps of City Hall tonight to commiserate on the passing of Proposition 8.
See the people and read what Senator Carole Migden and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin had to say here.
An ocean of people on Polk Street. Click to expand:
Time appears to be on the side of the No on 8 people. They’ll be plenty of court action and elections in the future…
Maybe it’s too early for backbiting?
The people in the crowd seemed to have a lot of energy for future fights, anyway.
Tags: 8, candlelight, City Hall, eight, equality, Gay, marriage, no, prop, proposition 8, San Francisco, vigil, yes
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Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
Most of the vehicles were trucks of one sort or another, many of them were work vehicles, and most of the passengers appeared to be Latino. What was it?
It was an evanescent parade of honking vehicles surrounding San Francisco’s City Hall for a brief period yesterday.
Click to expand:
Read all about it.
Tags: 8, City Hall, civic center, eight, honking, latino, no, parade, prop 8, proposition 8, San Francisco, suv, truck, yes
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Sunday, October 26th, 2008
Despite some criticism for this and that, the No on 8 campaign seems to back on track. At least that’s the way it appeared yesterday at the Market Street headquarters. Mayor Gavin Newsom, California Assemblymember Fiona Ma, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, Supervisor Tom Ammiano, Assessor Phil Ting, and Treasurer Jose Cisneros were all on hand to encourage the No on 8 workers at HQ.
Talk of the day concerned how much Pro-8 “Mormon money” from Idaho and Utah was coming into the state of California and how many phone calls the hundreds of volunteers were making.
Click to expand:
The mayor went off on a tangent about how constitutions have “never been changed to take peoples’ rights away” and how the U.S.(?) Constitution has been amended 17 times since the time of the Bill of Rights (which is true, they’re called the “subsequent amendments“) for the sole purpose of giving people rights. This would be correct only if you ignore a few, such as the 16th, or the 18th, or the 22nd, or the…
But don’t worry about that, just sign up for the campaign if you want. And ask about perks you might get, such as free massages:
It can’t hurt to ask them, anyway.
Will Attorney General Jerry Brown get the credit for defeating Prop 8, as this article suggests? Only time will tell.
Tags: 8 eight, defense, Gay, marriage, no on 8, prop, proposition 8, right, San Francisco
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