by Seth Hemmelgarn
![]() |
![]() |
Mayor Gavin Newsom helped kick-off the No on Prop 8 campaign Saturday, September 6. Photo: Lydia Gonzales |
With just nine weeks before the November 4 election, when voters will decide on a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage, the campaign to defeat the antigay Proposition 8 is now in full swing.
The Equality for All campaign officially kicked off its efforts to educate voters about the measure at a rally and press conference last weekend at its campaign headquarters in the Castro. Campaign organizers, city leaders and volunteers packed into the campaign's sweltering offices in the old Tower Records store on Market Street to hear a host of elected officials speak out against the measure.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom reminded the crowd that the race is tight, and not everybody in the state thinks like San Francisco, where support for eliminating the right of same-sex couples to wed is particularly weak.
"This really is 47 and a half square miles surrounded by reality," Newsom said at the September 6 event.
As the campaign to defeat Prop 8 races against the clock as Election Day nears, Latinos are one of the groups opponents of the antigay ballot initiative are trying to reach. When it comes to same-sex marriage, the Latino community is sometimes thought of as too conservative to be supportive of same-sex marriage.
Reports in the mainstream media have given further weight to this impression. A recent San Jose Mercury News article quoted Frank Schubert, campaign manager for Proposition 8, as saying, "This issue is as important or more important to the Latino community than the presidential race. It's a real core value for Latinos, there's no question about that."
Yet others argue that Latinos are more open-minded on the issue and many would be receptive to the No on Prop 8 message of equality for all. Yvette Martinez, the political director for the NO on Prop 8 campaign, said their message to Latinos is the same as the message for every voter.
"This is a campaign about fairness and equality. Latino families are the same as every family. We love our brothers and sisters. We want them to be able to marry and be happy like everyone else," Martinez said.
Steven Ochoa, vice president of public policy and research for the William C. Vel squez Institute, conducts research aimed at improving the level of political and economic participation in Latino and other underrepresented communities. Ochoa said the Latino and LGBT communities have a shared history of discrimination, and Latinos don't want to see anyone being persecuted.
"Do we have voters that are going to be super-religious and vote on this issue because of that? Yeah. But by and large, Latinos are fairly progressive and want equal opportunity for all types of people," said Ochoa, adding that the institute is opposed to the measure but is not actively working to defeat it.
Jason Cornejo, who's been with his husband, Mauricio Calder—n, for 12 years, said the media sometimes emphasizes "a piece of being Latino" that makes people in the community seem "not aware and still ignorant."
Cornejo and Calder—n appeared on a Spanish-language radio show this summer to talk about Prop 8, and Cornejo said people who called were supportive.

Mark Leno signs a No on Prop 8 poster for volunteer Unicorn Escobedo during the campaign headquarters opening. Photo: Lydia Gonzales
According to Ochoa, about 3 million of the state's 16 million registered voters are Latino. Recent polls showing how people could vote on Prop 8 have offered a mixed picture when it comes to those voters on the issue of marriage equality.
A July Field Poll indicated 49 percent of Latinos who are likely to vote would support Prop 8, while 38 percent would vote against it. Thirteen percent of the respondents to that poll were undecided.
However, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll released in August, only 41 percent of likely Latino voters would support the measure, while 54 percent would oppose it. Five percent were undecided.
Outreach plans
Javier Angulo recently joined the No on 8 campaign as the deputy political director for southern California. Angulo, who's also worked for groups such as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, wants to rally Latino leaders, from elected officials to community leaders, against Prop 8. He said so far he's counted 30 Latino elected officials statewide who have endorsed the No on 8 campaign.
"We know Latino elected officials are sympathetic to the issues of equality," Angulo said.
One of the biggest draws to No on 8 could be Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who, according to the campaign, has endorsed their efforts. A spokesman for Villaraigosa did not respond to requests for comment.
The United Farm Workers of America endorsement could also be valuable.
"We believe that our members, a large percentage being Latino, will look at this measure as a matter of equality and fairness," Merlyn Calderon, the group's California political director, wrote in an e-mail. "The California Supreme Court struck down the state's discriminatory marriage laws banning marriage for gay and lesbian couples. This measure is an attempt to overturn a historic decision that reaffirms fairness and opportunity."
In San Francisco, the No on 8 county committee has a Latino sub-committee with six community members that's reaching out to the Latino community to get endorsements, encourage people to get involved in the field efforts, and raise funds for the campaign, according to Roberto Ordenana, a co-chair of the No on 8 San Francisco County Committee.
Bilingual efforts
According to the Mercury News, the Yes on 8 campaign "plans to advertise in Spanish, and work through Latino churches this fall." A spokeswoman for the campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Martinez indicated the No on Prop 8 campaign is hoping also to do Spanish language media if they raise enough money. But she declined to say how much money they'll need.
The campaign will also hopefully be doing bilingual phone banking, but the campaign isn't likely to invest in Spanish-language yard signs, since they'd rather get volunteers on the phones, said Martinez. Phone banking is one of the main tactics the campaign is using to try to sway voters.
Gloria Nieto, director of community affairs for San Jose's Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center and head of the Silicon Valley LGBT Democratic Club, said she's already recruiting people to do phone banking in Spanish.
"Latinos don't think all the same any more than the LGBT community thinks all the same. We're not a monolith," said Nieto, who recently married Jo Kenny, the woman she's been with for 19 years. "[Latinos] all have LGBT relatives and friends, somebody in the family who this would affect."
The day before her wedding, Nieto noted more than half the people who would be there were Latino. She said the couple had requested that guests contribute either to the No on 8 or Democratic Illinois Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
Nieto's also helping to create a Latino advisory board and hopes to collect endorsements against Prop 8.
Another person who's been urging people to help defeat Prop 8 is Christine Chavez, the granddaughter of Cesar Chavez, who founded the association that later became the farm workers group.
Latinos "are about strengthening families. One of the ways to do that is through marriage," Chavez said.
In an interview shortly before a monument to her legendary grandfather was dedicated at San Jose State University September 4, Chavez said she planned to talk about Prop 8 there, as she does any time she has a chance to address the public.
"There will be many Latinos there," she said of the event. "It's a perfect opportunity to educate the community" that while it's important to remember Cesar Chavez through a statue, "it's equally important to carry on his work and his ideas and his missions one of those was about ending discrimination for any community."
She said if her grandfather were alive today, "I can honestly say he would be a supporter of [same-sex] marriage."
Some feel that younger Latinos are even more likely to oppose Prop 8. One of the volunteers at the campaign's kick-off, Alexander Adsat, 17, attends Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland.
Adsat still won't be old enough to vote on November 4, but he is pitching in to defeat the proposed measure.
"I think we have to stick together to be able to achieve all our equal rights," he said of Latinos working with other communities against the measure.
Anthony Sanchez, another volunteer at the No on 8 event Saturday, is straight, but he recognizes a struggle for equality when he sees one.
"There was a time in this country when I wouldn't have been able to marry a white woman," Sanchez said.
For more information, visit www.noonprop8.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment