Poll: Prop 8 Repeal Will Be Tough In 2010

Although activists banned the media from their post-Meet In The Middle For Equality leadership summit so that new polling data didn't "provide ammunition to opponents of same-sex marriage", the results were published by the Bay Area Reporter yesterday. According to the latest survey, which was taken the first week of May, the "movable middle" on marriage equality is quite small and a Prop 8 repeal effort made in either 2010 or 2012 will be quite the battle.

Overall, the poll shows that California is split down the middle when it comes to same-sex marriage, with 47 percent in favor and 48 opposed. Those figures mirror other statewide polls that have been done since last fall's election, suggesting that many voters' minds are made up on the issue and the percentage of persuadable voters is very small, about 5 percent, Binder said Sunday during an informal news conference after the closed session.

The poll also shows the marriage equality side doing better in 2012 than in 2010. On a series of similar questions, the poll results show more support for reinstating the right of same-sex couples to marry (46 percent yes, 49 percent no in 2012, compared to 45 percent to 51 percent in 2010), or a constitutional amendment to end California's ban on same-sex marriage (47 percent yes, 47 percent no in 2012, compared to 47 percent yes, 48 percent no in 2010). However, Binder noted that a ballot measure in either year would be close. "It's a very close race regardless of whether it's 2010 or 2012," Binder said. "People's opinions are very strong on both sides."

Read Rex Wockner's coverage of the controversy over the media ban.

Lesbian Collapses After Fresno March, Partner Refused Hospital Access

Kristin Orbin collapsed with an epileptic seizure after marching 14 miles from Selma to Fresno in Saturday's Meet In The Middle march. Her partner Teresa Rowe was then denied access to Orbin's hospital room and was not allowed to direct her medical care despite offering to provide documentation that she was entitled to do so.

Orbin said the paramedic told the nurse on duty that she had collapsed after marching 14 miles for civil rights, and the nurse gave her a dirty look and said "ooooh." She continued, "I asked if Teresa could come back with me, but the nurse told me I was in a no visitor zone. When I asked her why everyone else had visitors, she said 'those people are different'." Orbin said she went to sleep at that point, but she was awakened by a nurse giving her the benzodiazapine Ativan, a drug that causes her to have severe migraine headaches. It was then that she discovered just how bad the situation had become. "Teresa was finally able to make her way up to the front desk and convince them to get a cell phone to me. When I talked to her, she said she had told the nursing staff not to give me Ativan, but they refused to listen to her. They refused to take my medical cards from her. They refused Teresa's offer to have my advance directive and power of attorney faxed over from UCSF." Orbin said she asked the nurses several times if Rowe could join her, but each time they refused. "They just kept looking at my Marriage Equality shirt and giving me dirty looks," she said. Orbin and Rowe were not reunited until a doctor intervened a few hours later.

The couple plans to contact the ACLU for help in redressing the situation.

Thousands Rally At Fresno's Meet In The Middle For Equality Event

An estimated 3000 activists rallied in California's heartland yesterday for the Meet In The Middle 4 Equality event, which was preceded by a 14-mile march from the symbolically chosen town of Selma.

With lively chants and rainbow flags, several thousand people rallied in Fresno today, aiming to persuade California’s conservative heartland to support same-sex marriage rights. Just days after the California Supreme Court upheld a ban on same-sex marriage approved by voters in November, activists launched the rally with a 14.5-mile march from Selma to Fresno in the Central Valley. Hundreds participated in the march. Seeking to link the march with the 1960s civil rights movement centered in places like Selma, Ala., organizers said it was “a symbolic sign of respect for the social movements before us.”

Photo galleries here. Below (left) Lt. Dan Choi delivers another rousing speech. In the clip on the right activist Robin McGehee gives a tearful plea to President Obama.

(Via JMG reader Sean Chapin. Photo by Spencer Weiner.)

Meet In The Middle 4 Equality - Live Stream

Watch the goings-on live as California activists take the fight for equality to the heartland of the state in Fresno.

Saturday: Meet In The Middle 4 Equality

All eyes turn to central California this Saturday for the giant Meet In The Middle 4 Equality march, in which activists take the battle to the heart of "the enemy" in Fresno.

Starting with a 14.5-mile march in Selma - the Fresno County town with the same name as the Alabama city iconic to the 1960s civil rights movement - and ending with a rally in Fresno, the event foreshadows efforts by same-sex marriage advocates to branch into middle America-like regions of interior California where opponents of Prop. 8 did little outreach last year. Organizers hope to reach Latinos, faith communities and African Americans, constituencies into which they previously failed to make in-roads. Their approach aims to blend slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk's put-a-human-face-on-the-issue activism with Barack Obama's neighbor-to-neighbor organizing.

Trip planning, hotel accommodations and other information is here.

Maddow On Prop 8

Meet In The Middle 4 Equality

Here's the official promo video for California's Meet In The Middle 4 Equality event. On the first Saturday after the California Supreme Court issues its ruling on Proposition 8, activists will gather at Fresno's city hall to protest or celebrate. Day Of Decision events will also take place around the country. Find the event nearest you here.

(Video credit: Sean Chapin)

Meet In The Middle 4 Equality

Central California is planning a special marriage rally on the Saturday after the state Supreme Court issues its ruling on Prop 8.

Rally for national LGBT equality the first Saturday AFTER the California Supreme Court issues its rulings on the Proposition 8 cases. Meet on the steps of City Hall in downtown Fresno at 1:00 PM.

Why Fresno? The battle for equality has to be fought in towns like Fresno, CA — not only in gay-friendly cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. California's Central Valley population is far more reflective of national attitudes towards LBGT Equality and until we engage the communities of "middle-America", we will not gain the full equality we deserve.

It's a good strategy. Take the fight to the small towns, not the metro areas where we're already there. Visit the site, subscribe for updates, join the Facebook group.