}

Sunday, June 16, 2013

AFER's Journey to the Day of Decision


This video from the American Foundation for Equal Rights is striking. It reminds us of the history of the fight to strike down California’s Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative in which California voters took away the right of same-gender couples to marry.

So much has changed since the fight began, and much of that is depicted in the video. Public opinion polls show increasing majority support for marriage equality, backed up more and more states enacting the freedom to marry, including at the ballot box. Even California wouldn’t enact Prop 8 if it was on the ballot now.

No one knows how the US Supreme Court will rule on the case, but AFER has produced a handy visual chart to show the possible outcomes. We’ll all know the outcome sometime in the next couple weeks.

No matter how the Supreme Court rules on the Prop 8 case, or on the equally important challenge to the federal Defense [sic] of Marriage Act, one fact remains as clear as ever: None of us are free until all of us are free. That won’t change, and the work remaining won’t go away, even if we get a sweeping ruling in our favour.

But as we wait, anxiously, to find out what the next chapter will be, it’s good to remember how far we’ve come. It helps to plan where we go next.

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