Youth energy and marriage equality

It seems the cold night in my house did have an affect on me. I have a mild case of a drippy nose. It started Saturday morning (about 22 hours after the heat was back on). It is dripping a bit less than it did. That didn't stop me from attending an excellent brass concert this afternoon . Much to the delight of the performers none of the pieces were transcriptions. The instruments were either not specified (as was the case of the music of Gabrieli, written around 1600) or specifically written for brass.

Between the Lines, Michigan's gay newspaper, reports that two groups are gearing up to put a repeal of the state's constitutional marriage ban on the 2014 ballot. Let's hear it for the kids!

The first group is MiLove in Ann Arbor. Their first task will be to collect signatures on a petition and their efforts will be focused on college campuses. The other group is Marriage Michigan and is co-founded by a student at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids (which means he was several years away from being able to vote when the ban was approved in 2004). Their petition is slightly different in that they want to also legalize gay marriage, not just get rid of the ban.

The big gay rights organization in the state, Equality Michigan, doesn't think the 2014 date is practical, that 2016 is much better. Jay Kaplan of Michigan ACLU is concerned that two different petitions will confuse voters and that if someone signs both it could be challenged as a double signature and removed from both. Equality Michigan also thinks tackling gay marriage should come after including gays in the state hate crimes law and employment non-discrimination.

Equality Michigan will soon be meeting with both ballot groups to get everyone working towards a single goal. The established organizations certainly don't want to squash the youthful enthusiasm.

Michelle Brown was a leader against the constitutional amendment in 2004. She says we shouldn't view our defense as a "failure" because a lot of good came out of it. We had to work together, combining the efforts of several gay organizations. We learned how to run a campaign. We as a community became more visible. We learned to join other progressive causes. We learned to respond to attacks with grace and humanity. And the youth driving the effort today should take a moment to listen to the lessons we learned.

If you want to get involved you can be part of the early discussions. The end of the article has a link to the contact person.