Gay Marriage Ban Likely to Pass
Bakersfield Californian
By James Burger and Jenny Shearer
November 4, 2008

After 19 years of being together, Carol Lair and Colette Shewcraft married this summer, something that made Lair feel part of society, not separate and apart. Our readers recommend:

At a No on Prop. 8 party hosted by B.J. Bertholf, a crowd of more than 50 was elated by the Barack Obama presidential victory, but there was still apprehension as they awaited the results of the proposition. With Obama's victory in hand, Carol Lair and Colette Shewcraft, who were married June 17, turned their attention to Prop 8. Like other married same-sex couples, they have no idea what a yes on 8 victory would do to their marriage if it passes.

“We see it as a civil rights issue, a basic right that should be available to all citizens,” Lair said while attending a No on Proposition 8 party in southwest Bakersfield Tuesday night.

She and Shewcraft were sitting apart from guests who surrounded the big-screen TV in the living room, watching Sen. John McCain’s concession speech.

At 5 a.m., Wednesday statewide results showed 51.9 percent voting yes on the measure and 48.1 percent against, with almost 91 percent of precincts reporting. In Kern, with all 588 precincts reporting at 5 a.m., 75.3 percent were in support of Prop. 8 and 24.7 percent voted no.

Ken Mettler, the ad hoc chairman of the Yes on 8 campaign in Kern County, said he was on pins and needles but was feeling cautiously optimistic.

Marriage between a man and a woman is a fundamental building block in our society, said Mettler, who believes the courts shouldn’t legislate from the bench.

Juan Cerda was up since 4 a.m. Tuesday, talking to people outside polling places about what a yes or no vote meant. He said he talked with a lot of Hispanic voters.

“This is about equality, making sure discrimination isn’t put in the Constitution,” Cerda said. He thinks if the proposition passes, it would be a step backward.

Activist Whitney Weddell, a No on 8 supporter, said she and others have worked hard to change how people in Kern County view their gay neighbors.

“A ‘Yes on 8’ sign goes directly to my heart. It breaks my heart to think my neighbors have this sense of being superior, that they’re entitled to this m-word and that by nature of who I am, I’m not,” she said. “The right we’re talking about is the right to choose whom you love.”

Ordained minister Will Winn said many things in society have been redefined recently, and marriage shouldn’t be. Marriage between a man and a woman was “literally created by God at creation.”

Passage or failure of Prop. 8 is far from the final word on the issue of same-sex marriage in California.

Yes on 8 spokeswoman Meg Waters said the Yes on 8 campaign was confident of victory, but knew that the vote would be close and the results might not be clear by Tuesday evening — or even this morning.

Waters wouldn’t speculate about what the campaign’s next step would be if Prop. 8 failed to pass.

Suanne Buggy, spokeswoman for the California Department of Public Health, which records marriage licenses in the state, said the department is offering no direction until after the election.

“We’re not going to comment until we know the outcome of the election. At that point we will provide guidance if necessary,” Buggy said.

If a ban on gay marriage passes, what Kern County Auditor-Controller-County Clerk Ann Barnett is not immediately going to do, said County Clerk Division Chief Nancy Lawson, is invalidate the same-sex marriages that the county has already recorded.

Since same-sex marriage became legal in June, Kern County has not recorded which licenses were issued to same-sex couples and which were issued to heterosexual couples, Lawson said.

And Kern County will need a higher say about whether existing same-sex marriages will be invalidated if Prop. 8 passes.

“A lot of the counties are waiting for the state to give us direction,” Lawson said.

Robert Bradley Sears, executive director of the The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at UCLA, and David Cruz, a law professor at the University of Southern California, both said if a ban on gay marriage passes, it is uncertain if same-sex marriages recorded since June 17 would be invalid. Sears said the issue will likely be litigated in the courts.