It’s been nearly a decade since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, but on Election Day California voters will decide whether to enshrine that right into the state’s constitution.
Proposition 3 would effectively repeal 2008’s controversial Proposition 8, which attempted to ban same-sex marriage in the state. The ballot measure was approved by voters and then struck down by a federal district court several years later. But the law remains on the books to this day, stating that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”
The push to protect marriage equality in California has been fueled by the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade and left reproductive rights up to the states. That same year, California voters enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution.
In early 2023, Assemblymember Evan Low and Sen. Scott Weiner — both Democrats — introduced the constitutional amendment in the legislature, gaining bipartisan support.
For Low, who is gay, the measure is personal. He was in his 20s when Proposition 8 passed and was “absolutely devastated” by the results.
The assemblymember, who is currently running for Congress, pointed towards the concurring opinion written by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas in the Dobbs decision as the catalyst for instituting protections for same-sex marriage in California.
In the opinion, Thomas wrote that the high court “should reconsider” its rulings on several landmark cases — including Obergefell v. Hodges, which gave same-sex couples the right to marry nationwide.
“I think if you ask everyday Californians on the street, ‘do you think marriage equality would be in jeopardy,’ people would laugh at you and probably say, ‘no absolutely not,’” Low said. “That’s not where the public is and that’s not where the direction of our country is, but again, no one ever thought that 50 years of protections for reproductive freedom, for bodily autonomy would ever be overturned. And yet it did.”
Support for the measure appears to be strong, according to a recent poll from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. Of the 1,071 likely voters surveyed by the think tank, 68% said they would vote yes, while 31% said they’d vote no. Only 1% of those surveyed said they were undecided.
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No large-scale opposition campaign has been mounted against Proposition 3 — a stark contrast to 2008 when both the Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came out strong for banning same-sex marriage.
The California Family Council, a state-affiliate of the Christian ministry organization Focus on the Family, is one of the few organizations vocally opposing the measure. Jonathan Keller, the group’s president, said they are concerned about the “open ended nature of how this was written.”
“We really believe that it paves the road for future legalization of polygamy and it also weakens any existing protections against either incest or child marriage,” he said.
Tony Hoang, the executive of Equality California, said that arguments like Keller’s are similar to those that were used back in 2008. A nonpartisan analysis by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office said that Proposition 3 “would not change who is allowed to marry in California.”
For Hoang and Equality California, the measure would give “some certainty” for the LGBTQ community.
“In light of everything that’s happening on the attacks of our community, specifically LGBTQ+ youth, this is just one way to show what California values are, and push back against the narrative that’s happening at the national level,” Hoang said.