Subject: Why Gays & Lesbians Should Oppose CA's Prop. 209
From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 20:47:46 -0400

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###