Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2000 08:52:04 -0500
From: Jim <glpcinat@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Proposition 22 passes, to the dismay of lesbian and gay
  families

SPECIAL REPORT

Parents Network - March 8, 2000                         
A publication of the Family Pride Coalition
http://www.familypride.org

March 8, 2000 - After a long and highly visible campaign Proposition 22, the
`Knight Initiative' passed 59% to 41% in yesterday's primary election. The
Initiative, which was authored by State Senator Pete Knight, was the subject
of much debate and publicity throughout California as well as nationally. It
stated simply, `Only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid in
California.' While supporters of Proposition 22 had argued that the
initiative was harmless, opponents say that it threatened thousands of
families and children in the state of California and was purposefully
confusing to voters.

Initiatives like Proposition 22 that have passed in other states have been
used to roll back civil rights that lesbian and gay families have struggled
hard to gain in the past decade: domestic partnership, child custody, and
hospital visitation to name a few. These are all laws that protect children
with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender parents. Child rights advocates,
labor activists, gay activists, and religious figures who have been working
against the Knight Initiative say it is one step toward taking legal rights
away from people who don't have many to begin with. Pete Knight is well
known for his attacks on immigrant and the gay and lesbian communities, and
many fear that passage of the Initiative will create an atmosphere of
intolerance for all marginalized communities. Historically Pete Knight and
his supporters have had an anti-gay and there is no reason to believe that
the same thing will not happen in California.

Those who were fighting Proposition 22 in the fall and winter have accused
the Yes on 22 campaign of masking an anti-gay and hateful initiative in
deceptive language, making it seem like an issue of same-sex marriage rather
than one of civil rights. Same-sex marriage is not legal anywhere in the
United States. Felicia Park-Rogers, the director of COLAGE (Children Of
Lesbians And Gays Everywhere) and herself the daughter of a lesbian and a
gay man, says that Proposition 22 passed because of its deceptive wording;
`Voters of California were confused. The people who wrote the initiative had
an anti-gay agenda which they hid in tricky language to make people think
they were voting on gay marriage. This was done on purpose. A lot of people
just didn't know what they were voting for.'

According to a recent report released from Stanford University there are
hundreds of thousands of children in California being raised by lesbian and
gay parents. When asked how passage of the Initiative will affect these
children, Park-Rogers said, `I can imagine the worst and hope for the best.
It was a mistake to pass this law. It will hurt families, and instigate
unwarranted discrimination and prejudice against some of our most vulnerable
citizens.'