Meeting in the Middle
By Zamná Ávila
Long Beach residents Ken Azzato and Sal Miano have shared their lives for 13 years as a couple. When San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2004 ordered the county clerk to furnish marriage licenses to same-sex couples who wished to wed, Azzato and Miano sent e-mail messages to their friends and family, and headed to San Francisco.
“When we got together we talked about getting married and having kids,” Miano said. “We’d built a life together. It was also important that the people we knew, that our family, see we have a normal life like everyone else.”
After the 2004 marriages in San Francisco were voided, the couple vowed to have a big wedding if same-sex marriage ever became legal again.
In September 2008, the couple kept their promise after the California Supreme Court declared that the California Constitution protects a fundamental right to marry that extends equally to same-sex couples.
Two months later, voters approved Proposition 8 and stripped gays and lesbians of the right to wed legally. The California Supreme Court upheld Prop. 8 in May 2009, but kept legal the 18,000 marriages that took place between June 16 and Nov. 4, 2008, including the Azzato-Miano marriage.
But their fight for gay civil rights has not ended.
“We don’t deserve anything different from anybody else,” Azzato said. “People that fought for us are the reason we [were able to marry].”
Following the court’s decision, the couple and a few friends took road trip to Fresno, Calif., where a large percentage of Californians voted to ban same-sex marriage. The group was attending “Meet in the Middle 4 Equality,” a rally where attendees from Southern, Northern and Central California gathered to protest the court’s decision.
“There are LGBT people [living] in this area,” said Robin McGehee, lead organizer of the event. “The reality is that, for the most part, we are very much living in a ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ community.”
Many demonstrators took a 14.5-mile hike from Selma, Calif., to the Fresno. The trek paid homage to a 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.
“We are drawing on the Montgomery March,” said Nii-Quartelai Quartey, lead statewide organizer with the Courage Campaign in Los Angeles. “We have a representation from labor groups, and from the Latino, African-American, faith-based and LGBT community.”
More than 2,000 demonstrators gathered at Fresno City Hall to protest the ruling.
“It is the state that enforces the civil right of the divorce,” said the Rev. Amos Brown, a Baptist minister. “Therefore, it is the state that should enforce the civil right of marriage.”
Transgender prom queen Crystal Vera and Morgan Early, a UCLA student and actress whose mother is a lesbian and father is gay, motivated the audience to break the silence.
“People need to know our stories,” said Early. “They need to know that my mother gave me a flower every first day of school and that my father made me square-shaped pancakes every morning until about the eighth grade.”
Dustin Lance Black, scriptwriter for the movie Milk, addressed the line of reasoning youth receive when gays and lesbian are treated as second-class citizens. “It has been 30 years since [San Francisco City Supervisor] Harvey Milk gave his life for the gay civil-rights movement, and here we are 30 years later and I am still ‘less’ than heterosexuals in terms of civil rights,” Black said. “Now is the time for us to demand to have our dreams realized. Now is the time to send a message for LGBT youth that life is worth living.”
Eric McCormack, the heterosexual actor who played gay character “Will” on TV’s Will & Grace, sent another message to a different crowd: Prop. 8’s supporters. “You are behaving like some mean, older brother that says, ‘Well, I guess you can play with those toys, but not the truck, ’cause you’ll break it,’” McCormack said. “The gays aren’t going to break marriage. I mean, think about it, they’re gay: They’ll probably spruce it up and make it a little nicer.”
Activists vow to continue their struggle with a march on Washington, D.C.
“I bring you this to remind you of what is possible,” said gay- and labor-rights activist Cleve Jones, as he held bullhorn that once belonged to Milk. “If you meet me at The Mall, I will be there. We are equal.”
Azzato said he expected more people at the rally. “There were 18,000 marriages in the state,” he said. “There should have been at least that many people in Fresno.”
Nevertheless, Miano said the Fresno rally was successful. “It’s important to keep the struggle at the forefront of people’s minds,” he said. “It’s important that we are all protected under the law. If we sit back and do nothing, the other side is going to continue to spread lies.”