Equal Rights for All Americans Championed at Oscars

By Kevin Gosztola

The question we must address is whether, under these circumstances, the failure to designate the official relationship of same-sex couples as marriage violates the California Constitution.

In 2000, too young to vote, my stomach sank when the Knight Initiative [Added: Proposition 22] — a marriage ban written by a man with a gay son — and an "anti-gang" measure sure to disproportionately target young people of color passed in California.

Organizing around the marriage ban those initiatives was one of my introductions to the world of activism. Now the Supreme Court of my home state has ruled the ban unconstitutional!

This Valentine's Day couples in California are planning in participating in the Freedom to Marry Day protest. Gay and lesbian couples all across the state will be heading to their local county clerk's office to demand marriage certificates, which they will be denied. However, one county clerk's office is taking it a step further.

Citizens of Colorado have had enough with the broken laws in their state that are set up to deny thousands of Colorado couples basic legal protections like the right to make funeral arrangements for a partner or visit their sick or dying partner in the hospital. Their solution? Referendum I. It's not marriage, but it provides basic legal rights to committed same-sex couples.

Coloradans for Fairness, the statewide organization created to ensure the passage of Referendum I, has challenged its supporters to make the 380-mile trek in support of basic legal rights.

Check out this innovative idea and help iwalk get to it's $1M goal!