Was Prop 8 Harmless? This Week in Prop 8 for Feb 22

Will a new law force California to defend Prop Eight? Marriage is coming to Maryland, but obstacles may drag it out for nine more months. We'll walk you through the next steps. And in New Hampshire, the anti-gay industry claims that gay marriage prevents straight people from caring for their kids.

How was your Valentine's Day? Did you get a chance to go down to city hall and ask for a marriage license? If you missed the nationwide rallies last Monday, don't worry -- we've produced a recap, gathering footage of the all marriage counter actions from LA, New York, Chicago, Houston, and a ton of other cities around the country and the world. Check out our Valentine's Day video to see LGBT couples standing together for what's right and promising to continue year after year, despite facing rejection, arrests, and even assaults.

Here in California, Attorney General Kamala Harris, like her predecessor now-Governor Jerry Brown, has refused to defend Prop 8. But Republican Senator Tom Harman has introduced a bill that would force her to do so. Senate Bill 5 is in the Judiciary Committee right now, so if you're looking for an Action Item in California, contact your state representatives and tell them to oppose Senate Bill 5. You can find their contact info by going to bit.ly/CAreps.

If this bill passes, its impact would be seen most prominently in September. That's when the California Supreme Court has announced that it will hear oral arguments regarding Perry versus Schwarzenegger, the case to overturn Prop Eight.

Now, they won't be deciding whether Prop Eight is constitutional. The only thing they're examining is whether the Proponents of Prop 8 have a right to defend it. Or in other words, whether a private religious organization has the right to step into the legal role of the California Attorney General.

We'll have their decision sometime around November, which is a long time to wait. But in the mean time, there's lots happening in other states.

In Hawaii, Governor Neil Abercrombie will finally sign a civil unions bill into law on Wednesday, more than twenty years after gay couples first filed suit against the state's unfair marriage ban, and fifteen years after the Mormon church petitioned the court to stop them.

Next step in Hawaii: marriage. That's what's happening now in Washington state, where Representative Jim Moeller introduced equality legislation on Valentine's Day.

But Indiana's headed the other way, with the House passing a bill to ban marriage and civil unions. In response, Bil Browning at the Bilerico Project has asked tipsters to help him unmask hypocritical lawmakers -- leaders who vote to deny marriage despite hiding unsavory skeletons in their own closets.

So if you've photographed Republican Representative Eric Turner having sex in a park men's room, or Representative Ralph Foley smelling high school wrestling singlets, or got high on bath salts with Representative David Cheatham -- all hypothetically -- contact Bil Browning at editor@bilerico.com.

Things are going to get complicated in Maryland, where Democratic Senator James Rosapepe announced that he supports a marriage equality bill currently in the Senate. That puts us over the line for passing the bill, and it's likely to have even smoother sailing in the House.

From there, Governor Martin O'Malley has pledged to sign the marriage equality bill. Then anti-gay groups would have until June to collect signatures to halt marriages until Maryland can vote. Which again brings us to November.

If we go that route, it'll be close. A survey last month showed that a majority in Maryland supports equality, but by just fifty-one to forty-four percent.

In response to that, the National Organization for Marriage bought a phony survey showing those numbers flipped. That survey was conducted by Gary Lawrence. He was on the payroll of the Prop Eight campaign and a Mormon grassroots director, getting over half a million dollars from the Prop Eight campaign in two thousand eight.

He also wrote the thoroughly debunked "Six Consequences if Prop Eight Fails" memo.

So what does this mean? Get ready now for dirty tricks in Maryland.

Things are more stable in New Hampshire, where Representatives heard testimony on bills that would end marriage equality. Those bills probably won't go anywhere. But that didn't stop the National Organization for Marriage from sending Maggie Gallagher to testify. Gallagher said that if gay couples are allowed to marry, then straight couples' children will be "produced in circumstances in which their mother and father are not pre-committed to caring for them."

What? Not even one word of that sentence makes sense.

If I get married, straight parents will stop loving their children? That's a compelling argument.

Another leader in the anti-gay industry, Kevin Smith, suggested that there are no consequences to banning gay marriage. He said, "The sky didn't fall in 2008 when the voters repealed same-sex marriage. The sky didn't fall in Maine either the next year in 2009."

Sorry, but that's just wrong. This is a report put out by Marriage Equality USA, documenting specific cases of Prop 8's harm.

Anti-gay harassment. A surge in hate crimes. One boy asked his moms if they were still a family.

When you prevent gay couples from getting married, you get partners turned away from hospitals, deported, denied adoption, refused medical insurance, losing their home if one of them dies. The basic dignity of being allowed to live the lives of our choosing.

So Kevin Smith, I dare you to turn to the families whose LGBT children committed suicide because of the rejection they faced, and tell them the sky didn't fall.

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