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More than 6 million California residents voted in favor of Proposition 8 banning gay marriage, overruling a 6-month-old state Supreme Court decision.
“I was devastated,” said St. Sauver, executive director of the LGBT Resource Center for the Seven Rivers Region.
A week has passed, and still she gets goosebumps when she thinks of the couples who missed the short window to marry.
Opponents of the ban almost immediately organized protests across California. Today, they’ll spread their message across the country with simultaneous rallies at city halls, statehouses and the U.S. Capitol.
Locally, gay rights supporters plan to protest at 12:30 p.m. outside La Crosse City Hall, 400 La Crosse St.
Wisconsin passed a similar amendment in 2006 with a margin of 59 percent to 41 percent, but St. Sauver said the sense of loss was more heightened last week.
“To get a taste of something and getting to appreciate a freedom and experience it, and then to have it taken away from you, on some level I think that can almost seem worse,” she said.
About Proposition 8
A majority of California voters Nov. 4 supported a ballot measure defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, overturning a May state Supreme Court decision granting same-sex couples the right to marry. Proposition 8 to amend the state’s constitution passed with about 52 percent of the vote, or fewer than half a million votes.
Greenlite wrote on Nov 19, 2008 7:59 AM: