Same-sex marriage advocates launched a campaign earlier this week to overturn California’s Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage in California. The LGBT advocacy group Love Honor Cherish began gathering signatures Monday to put a new amendment on the November 2010 ballot that would revoke the language of Prop. 8 and replace it with: “Marriage is between only two persons and shall not be restricted on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.”
Love Honor Cherish must collect 700,000 valid signatures by mid-April to get the amendment on the ballot, but they are aiming for 1 million signatures as such drives usually result in thousands of invalid petitions. The group plans on utilizing social networking and its website, SignForEquality.com, to reach that high goal while keeping to a commitment to not use paid signature gatherers.
“We’re taking names,” said John Henning, the Executive Director of Love Honor Cherish. “SignForEquality.com will make history by using custom social networking tools, as well as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, to support an all-volunteer signature drive to repeal Prop 8. People throughout California can now help us win marriage back by the simple act of signing and collecting signatures.”
If the campaign is successful, California would be the first state in which voters approved a redefinition of marriage. Most, however, think the effort is a long shot. Equality California, another California-based LGBT rights group, is not backing the petition drive, arguing that the amendment would be more successful on the 2012 ballot.
Proposition 8, which put the language “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California” into the state constitution, passed in 2008 with a 52-48 percent vote.