By Steven T. Jones
In the wake of the California Supreme Court decision upholding Prop. 8 and denying marriage equality, Mayor Gavin Newsom has put out a call to overturn the issue at the ballot box. “Let this work start today,” Newsom, who triggered the current fight five years ago with his decision to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, said in prepared statement.
It’s unclear whether Newsom wants to play a leadership role in that campaign, or whether the movement even wants him to after his boastful “whether they like it or not” speech was used effectively in pro-Prop. 8 commercials. But it is clear that Newsom’s political fortunes have been closely tied to the issue, and that he probably deserves more credit for creating the current push for marriage equality in California than he does for many of the other issues on which he is campaigning for governor.
Yet today is a day to focus on this decision and how to overcome it, and Newsom seemed to strike the right chords with his statement (which follows in its entirety).