From: GAYLESBLA@aol.com Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 20:47:46 -0400 Subject: Why Gays & Lesbians Should Oppose CA's Prop. 209 The following came from Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a national legal organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men and people with HIV/AIDS, through impact litigation, education and public policy work. PLEASE POST EVERYWHERE! WHY LESBIANS AND GAY MEN SHOULD OPPOSE THE CALIFORNIA CIVIL RIGHTS INITIATIVE (PROP. 209)? What is CCRI (PROP. 209)? The California Civil Rights Initiative, also known as CCRI (Proposition 209), is a proposed amendment to the California Constitution that will appear on this November’s ballot. If approved by a majority of voters, Prop. 209 would prohibit all government agencies in California from granting preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting. Prop. 209 does not define the term preferential treatment (a phrase remarkably similar to the discredited anti-gay slogan of special rights ). At the very least, however, CCRI will abolish all government job, school, and contracting programs that attempt to help people of color and women, unless similar programs have been set up to benefit whites and men. The result would be an immediate end to efforts to reach out to and recruit women and people of color for government jobs, contracts, and public educational programs. Likely to disappear as well are the use of goals and timetables, support groups, campus Women’s Centers, tutoring, mentoring, and scholarships adopted as means of curtailing the historical and ongoing effects of discrimination against women and people of color in these fields. Although some progress has been made, enormous racial, ethnic, and sex-based inequities continue to exist in California. While higher paid positions in our state’s public workforce were more than 90% white in 1975, those positions were still almost 70% white in 1993. Prop. 209 seeks to reverse this progress by miscasting any efforts to level the playing field as somehow unfair race and gender preferences. Why should lesbians and gay men oppose CCRI (Prop. 209)? The passage of CCRI would hurt women and people of color in California. Lesbians and gay men should be concerned about this for a number of reasons. If you are lesbian or a person of color, Prop. 209 will make it more difficult for you to obtain fair treatment in government employment, education, and contracting. Further, just as lesbians have supported gay men in the struggle against AIDS, we all must join together to fight against measures that impede diversity, compassion, and equitable treatment for any of us. We cannot expect those who seek to advance and protect the interests of women and people of color to support lesbian and gay struggles for equality and justice if we do not all work together in coalition to protect the rights of all women, and of all African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Pacific Americans, and Native Americans as well. Moreover, CCRI is simply the latest in a series of political efforts by right wing extremists to expand their power through misleading rhetoric, exploitation of many people’s concerns about economic hard times, and the scapegoating of the least powerful in our society. Prop. 209 is an attempt to create another wedge issue to divide the electorate and to forge a vehicle for right wing organizing and fundraising. Should it succeed, Prop. 209 will strengthen the political clout of the extreme right, who will claim a mandate to reverse not only gains made by women and people of color, but to reexamine all civil rights measures of the last several decades. Those behind CCRI are hostile to lesbian and gay rights. If CCRI (Prop. 209) passes, direct attacks on laws protecting those rights, (which already are increasingly under siege) will not be far behind. One portion of CCRI is of particular concern. Known as clause (c), it states that CCRI does not prohibit bona fide qualifications based on sex which are reasonably necessary to the normal operation of public employment, education or contracting. This clause could permit forms of sex discrimination that California law now prohibits. In addition, it is likely to be argued that CCRI lowers the level of scrutiny courts currently apply in judging sex discrimination claims. Discrimination against lesbians and gay men frequently takes the form of sex discrimination. Many lesbians and gay men are discriminated against because we do not conform to gender stereotypes. In addition, those in same sex relationships often are subjected to unequal treatment because our sex is the same as our partner’s. To the extent CCRI makes it more difficult to win on sex discrimination claims, it also will hurt the ability of lesbians and gay men to obtain fair treatment from the government. If CCRI passes, it further is likely to have significant impacts upon the willingness of the private sector to adopt and implement measures CCRI bars for the government. As targeted advertisements, recruitment, and support groups fall into disfavor as a way to remedy sex and race discrimination in both the public and private spheres, they also are likely to become more difficult to obtain in challenges to discrimination based on sexual orientation. The point is that the civil rights struggles of all communities are inexorably connected. Lesbians and gay men thus need to join women and people of color of all sexual orientations in opposing CCRI (Prop. 209). For more information on CCRI (Prop. 209), you can contact: Californians for Justice No on CCRI (Prop. 209) (213) 747-4495 or (213) 782-1144 or (510) 452-2728 (415) 775-3739 What is Lambda? Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men and people with HIV/AIDS, through impact litigation, education and public policy work. Founded in 1973, and with offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, Lambda is the nation’s oldest and largest lesbian and gay legal organization. Lambda plans further to expand and open a Southern Regional Office in Atlanta in 1997. Among other important victories, Lambda was co-counsel in the recent, ground-breaking U.S. Supreme Court case striking down Colorado’s anti-gay Amendment 2. Lambda presently is co-counsel in the Hawaii marriage case and in the lead challenge to the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell military policy. Lambda also is now handling scores of cases seeking equal rights for lesbians, gay men, and people living with HIV in the areas of employment, family relationships, health care, criminal justice, insurance, housing, education, and immigration, both in California and across the country. To find out how you can become more involved with Lambda and what you can do to support our work, please call (213) 937-2728. ###END###