West Hollywood Mayor John Duran and former Log Cabin Republican Chair Brian Perry spoke from both sides of the party lines about the importance of voting and of defeating the proposed federal marriage amendment at a fundraiser supporting marriage equality which took place at Bourbon Street on Thursday, June 24. Approximately 40 people attended the event, which raised money for The Center’s Marriage Project.

“I never thought I’d be up here talking about marriage,” said Duran, who has been active in the GLBT civil rights movement for 20 years, “…but it’s a journey that I think we’ve all taken, and, as sad as this sounds, we’ve really paid in blood to be here. I mean that literally: With every hate crime victim, Matthew Shepard, Gwen Araujo, every AIDS patient who died – we paid an incredible price in order for America to finally humanize our people, and that’s where we find ourselves today.”

Duran addressed claims made by the religious right that same-sex marriage is a “threat to the pillar of Western civilization,” saying that other so-called pillars of society, including interracial marriage, childhood betrothal and women’s suffrage, needed to crumble.

He also remarked on how quickly the same-sex marriage issue came to the forefront of the American political landscape since Canada legalized same-sex marriage and Lawrence v. Texas declared sodomy laws unconstitutional in the United States last June.

“If you would have asked me four or five years ago, ‘When are we going to get to marriage?’ I would have told you, ‘That’s for the 20-somethings to handle when they’re in their 50s,” he said, adding, “Massachusetts was by court order, but California, I think, will be through the legislature.”

State Assembly seats in San Diego and Santa Ana are critical to the passage of AB 1967, The California Marriage License Nondiscrimination Act, which needs 41 votes to get through the Legislature.

“We have 37 votes in the Assembly today to get the bill to the governor’s desk,” Duran said. “We need 41. We must have the two Assembly seats from San Diego or the bill won’t move. So whether or not you all realize it, you’ve got some heavy lifting to do in San Diego.”

“This is a debate that is going on all over the country,” Perry said. “And ultimately this is not going to be decided by people in Hillcrest, or the Castro, or West Hollywood – no disrespect intended – it’s going to be decided by people in Omaha, Orlando and Ohio, and that’s why it’s a cultural war.”

Duran compared the establishment of civil unions and domestic partnerships in the United States in place of full marriage equality with South African apartheid, where non-whites were subjected to a different set of laws than whites.

“If this movement to get marriage fails, those founders words about liberty and pursuit of happiness and equality don’t resound any longer,” he said. “Just like the suffragettes, just like the civil rights marchers, it’s our turn to show the world that those words mean something.”

“We need to realize that this is a nonpartisan issue, because this is all about progress,” Perry added, citing former conservative Republican Congressmember Bob Barr, the author of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), who has spoken out against the proposed federal marriage amendment and will testify to a Senate committee before the Senate votes on the issue July 15. “We have to realize that progress occurs throughout the political spectrum. When somebody changes from being antagonistic to disapproving, it’s progress. When someone goes from being disapproving to ambivalent, or ambivalent to supportive, that’s all progress. … We’re trying to turn people that are supportive into activists, because that’s progress. We need to embrace progress everywhere it is occurring.”

After Duran and Perry spoke, local multi-media production studio Groovy Like A Movie screened, “Love Stories”, their 30-second entry into the “I Do” television commercial contest sponsored by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). The winning commercial will be aired nationally in support of same-sex marriage.

In addition, Perry screened “Defend the Constitution”, the 30-second Log Cabin Republican television commercial featuring Vice President Dick Cheney’s comments during the 2000 presidential campaign in which he said he does not “think there should necessarily be a federal policy” in the area of same-sex marriage. The ad concludes with: “We agree. Don’t amend the Constitution.”

To view the commercials, visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to the GLAAD and Log Cabin websites.