In 2008, California voters passed a constitutional amendment that added the language into our state’s constitution that marriage is between “a man and a woman.” We know that this type of non-inclusive, heteronormative language hurts 2SLGBTQIA+ communities and has no place in our state constitution.
We’re excited that voters have a chance to take out this exclusionary language from our state’s top governing document and instead replace it with language that guarantees marriage as a fundamental right to everyone – regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. Almost 3 million Californians identify as LGBT. It’s time that California’s state constitution lets go of archaic ideas of what marriage looks like and includes same-sex couples in our definition of marriage.
While marriage equality is an important issue, we also know that people in the LGBQ-TGNC community face far more serious barriers and discrimination than not being able to get married. We must focus our attention on HIV/AIDS prevention, combating police brutality, protecting gender-affirming healthcare, and preserving gender and sexual orientation education to further the rights of people who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+.