Coalition prioritizes gay rights
Some say the causes they are fighting for go against what Californians really want
David Olson, Press Enterprise
July 17, 2005

Several gay and lesbian groups in the desert are banding together to fight a proposed state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The alliance is apparently the first gay political coalition ever formed in the Palm Springs area, which has a large and growing lesbian and gay population.

The coalition also is backing a pro-gay-marriage bill now in the legislature and plans to fight against several Legislative bills that members view as anti-gay.

Among the planned activities is a bus caravan through desert cities to try to build broad-based opposition to the amendment. Stops would include places such as the ritzy El Paseo shopping strip in Palm Desert and The River shopping center in Rancho Mirage.

"Often when we have rallies, we're preaching to the choir," said Loren Berthelson, co-leader of the Riverside County chapter of Marriage Equality California, one of the groups in the coalition. "Our thought is, let's take this on the road and let people see who they'd be discriminating against. Let's put a face to the struggle. It's easy to hate someone you don't know."

The coalition also is planning to lobby local legislators and work with statewide and national gay organizations.

Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Murrieta, said the alliance is working against the wishes of Californians, who in 2000 voted 61 to 39 percent in favor of Prop. 22, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

"The problem is the people have one opinion as to what marriage is and the institutions -- the courts and the legislature -- have another opinion and are trying to undercut the principles enacted by the people in Proposition 22," he said, pointing to court-approved state domestic-partnership laws that grant same-sex couples certain rights. Haynes supports a constitutional amendment proposed by ProtectMarriage.com that would repeal those rights and ban gay marriage.

Randy Thomasson, an organizer of VoteYesMarriage.com, which will begin collecting signatures Aug. 1 to place another version of an anti-gay-marriage amendment on the 2006 ballot, said same-sex marriage and domestic-partnership rights undermine marriage. "If marriage can mean anything, it can ultimately mean nothing," said Thomasson, president of the Sacramento-based Campaign for Children and Families.

Berthelson, who considers himself married "in my heart," said granting marriage rights to same-sex couples doesn't affect heterosexual unions.

"How could my marriage and my life in Desert Hot Springs, California -- how can me sharing my life with another man for 12 years affect someone else's marriage?" he asked.

There are now five groups in the gay-marriage coalition: Marriage Equality California, Desert Women for Equality, the Desert Pride Center, Stonewall Democrats and the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network.

Organizers predict more will join. Most lesbian and gay groups in the desert are social rather than political. But the alliance is trying to get them involved as well because their members are affected by the proposed amendment and the legislation, said Barbara Barrett, president of Desert Women for Equality and a member of the Palm Springs Human Rights Commission.

The coalition is also fighting against several bills now in the legislature. Among them are proposals that would require written parental approval for discussion in schools of homosexuality and domestic partnerships, allow business owners to refuse to provide certain services if it violates their religious beliefs and allow foster parents to refuse a house a child who doesn't share the same religious and moral beliefs.

"This is vicious targeting of gay people," Keithe Bisnett, of Desert Women for Equality, said during a coalition meeting Wednesday at the Desert Pride Center in Palm Springs.

"The marriage issue," Barrett said, "would fall by the wayside if we don't have other rights."