NOM: Prop 8 Happened Because Of San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders

Writing on NOM's blog, Maggie Gallagher claims that Prop 8 would never have happened had San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders not come out in support of marriage equality.

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders testified today in the Prop 8 trial, in favor of misusing the Consittution to overturn the rights of 7 million Californian voters. Here’s the interesting thing most people don’t know. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders is the reason Prop 8 got on the ballot. He gave moving testimony in court today about how much he loves his lesbian daughter. Sure. But he ran for office promising the people of San Diego he opposed gay marriage. And then, he signed a city council resolution trying to overturn Prop 22 instead of meeting his obligations, living up to his promises. And he used his daughter as an excuse. That’s wrong. Politicians are not elected to advance the views and values of their families. The National Organization for Marriage, which has been credited by gay rights activists as one of the main reasons Prop 8 qualified for the ballot, got involved because Mayor Sander betrayed his campaign vows. I was asked to fly to San Diego in October of 2007 by a group of San Diego Catholics upset about the Mayor’s betrayal. That meeting lead directly to NOM’s decision to try to raise a million dollars in January of 2008 to help Protect Marriage get this on the ballot. The rest is history. Thank-you Mayor Sanders.

Reporter Rex Wockner covered Sanders' testimony yesterday and provides the following post-trial quote.

I came as a Republican mayor, I came as a father and I came as a former police chief. And I came to say that we cannot tolerate discrimination against one group of people. ... I'm here with my daughter and I'm very proud of my daughter. But I was also honored to testify because I think this is an important issue for all Californians. Today was difficult at times because it required me to talk about the reasons I once believed civil unions were good enough for same-sex couples. And I think what that did was force me to think about why I'd done that. And I thought at the time it was an acceptable compromise. However, I have learned very clearly from people that are very involved that I was discriminating against them based on prejudicial arguments that I had. When I said that civil unions were enough, I was saying that the relationship that my daughter has with Meaghan, I was saying that that wasn't as important, that wasn't as significant as the marriage that I have to my wife. And I was wrong about that, and I think that that's one of the things that I wanted to make sure that people understood today.

Read the rest of Wockner's coverage, which includes comments from Sanders' daughter.

(Photo by Rex Wockner)