© 2024 KALW 91.7 FM Bay Area
KALW Public Media / 91.7 FM Bay Area
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
State of the Bay

What’s Next for the Marriage Equality Movement in California?

It’s been an eventful year in the movement to legalize same sex marriage. Last year Judge Vaughn Walker ruled California’s Prop 8 unconstitutional. Then late last month, New York governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation allowing same sex couples there to marry. And just last week, Rhode Island authorized civil unions. All this against the backdrop of the imminent repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the launch of the It Gets Better video campaign and the first ever Gallup poll to show a majority of Americans supporting same sex marriage.

But ask advocates for marriage equality what they think of all this and they’re likely to say that there’s more work to be done: Prop 8 is hung up in the appeals process and seems likely headed for the US Supreme Court, where it’s fate is anything but certain; there are still only seven jurisdictions that allow gay marriage, and there is the ongoing opposition to the movement from those in the Tea Party.

In this hour, we bring together three leading voices on marriage equality to discuss the legal, political and cultural landscape on which these events are unfolding.

What can California learn from the experience of other states?

What’s next for the marriage equality movement—and for marriage as an institution?

Guests:

  • Kate Kendell, an attorney and the Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), a national legal organization that fights for the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy and public education.
  • Polly Pagenhart, an educator and cultural critic by training, she writes about cultural and political issues affecting queer families both in print and on her award-winning blog Lesbian Dad.
  •  Andrea Shorter, Director of Marriage Equality and Coalition Strategies for Equality California, the state's largest LGBT advocacy organization. She also founded and directs 'And Marriage for All' a public education campaign which reaches out to the African American community around the issue of marriage equality.