LGBT Ballot Measures

While Election Day proved to be a happy one for advocates of reproductive justice, it also brought devastating defeats for the LGBT community and their allies. Four states, California, Florida, Arizona, and Arkansas, had measures on the ballot limiting the rights of LGBT citizens, and every single one of them passed.

California’s Proposition 8 asked voters whether they supported limiting marriage to one man and one woman, overturning a California Supreme Court ruling in May 2008 giving gay and lesbian couples the right to marry. Voters supported the measure, 52% to 48%.

In Florida, by a margin of 62% to 38%, voters approved a measure defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Voters in Arizona elected to ban gay marriage in their state. In 2006, voters rejected a similar ballot initiative, becoming the first state in the nation to reject a ban on gay marriage. This year, however, they voted for it, 56%-44%.

Arkansas’ ballot initiative dealt with adoption. The majority of the electorate – 57% – supported prohibiting “unmarried sexual partners” from adopting children or serving as foster parents. This measure will apply to unmarried heterosexual couples as well as homosexual couples and may even affect single people wishing to adopt or foster children.

The success of these measures speaks to the work we have to do to attain full rights for LGBT citizens. The New York Times had a great editorial about the measures, which you can read here. An excerpt:

We do not view these results as reason for despair. Struggles over civil rights never follow a straight trajectory, and the ugly outcome of these ballot fights should not obscure the building momentum for full equality for gay people, including acceptance of marriage between gay men and women. But the votes remind us of how much remains to be done before this bigotry is finally erased.

Reproductive Rights on Ballots Across the Country – Part I: Colorado

This fall, voters in three states will see anti-abortion measures on their ballots. The New York Times gives a good overview of all three in an editorial that opposed all the initiatives. We’ll be taking a closer look at each initiative, starting with Colorado’s Amendment 48.

When voters in Colorado head to the polls on November 4, they’ll be deciding whether their state constitution will be amended to recognize personhood from the moment of fertilization. Amendment 48 is “[a]n amendment to the Colorado constitution defining the term ‘person’ to include any human being from the moment of fertilization as ‘person’ is used in those provisions of the Colorado constitution relating to inalienable rights, equality of justice, and due process of law.” (Full text of the Amendment is here in PDF format.)  Women’s groups around the country are opposing the Amendment, pointing out that if enacted, it will pit the rights of women against the rights of fertilized eggs and threaten women’s health, jeopardize access to birth control, and lay the foundation for outlawing all abortions. Even Colorado’s anti-choice Catholic governor Bill Ritter came out in opposition of the Amendment, saying that it “goes too far.”

More information on Colorado’s Amendment 48:
Protect Families Protect Choices coalition is leading the effort in opposition to the Amendment.

The Center for Reproductive Rights has a fact-sheet on the Amendment and its implications on women’s health (in PDF format).