Marriage Victory is Key to Ballot Victory

By winning marriage equality in California today, advocates for equal marriage rights were handed a major tool in their campaign to defeat a constitutional ban this fall.

Now, proponents of the constitutional ban will actually be taking away marriage. This is a huge deal. In 30 days nearly 40,000,000 people in CA and countless others who will visit CA to get married, will have the right to marry. The fight in CA has shifted on a dime. Now "Let Caflifornia Ring" the campaign to defeat the marriage ban, can use entirely new arguments, new stories, and new couples to kill this mean-spirited amendment.

Anyone who has worked on ballot measures knows that the electorate is finicky. Sometimes when they get confused they vote "no" and they certainly respond to fear. Polling suggests that losing civil rights or losing health care benefits are compelling messages. The task now is the do what was done in Massachusetts, protect the gains that have been made. We must be prepared for right wing to shift their messaging to "pivot and blame" and move substantial funds to CA. We all most donate to the campaign there to protect this massive victory.

The fight for marriage equality and basic human dignity was catapulted ahead light years today by this victory. It will inspire columns, documentaries and certainly hundreds of thousands of conversations in the coming days alone about gay families. Other courts will feel more emboldened. Presidential candidates will meander around the issue which is now front and center. The Republican Party (represented by Governor Schwarzenegger) has decided to respect the decision. McCain quotes from 2004 have re-surfaced expressing his opposition to the Federal Marriage Amendment.

All hands on deck.