Equality for All outlined their efforts to combat ballot initiatives seeking to overturn domestic partnerships and ban same-sex marriage in the California Constitution at a public forum held at The Center on Sept. 12. The coalition group aims to educate all San Diegans about the impact of marriage discrimination, and members of San Diegans Against Marriage Discrimination also spoke at the forum about what they have planned for the upcoming months.

One initiative is sponsored by Campaign for Children and Families President Randy Thomasson, retired Assemblymember Larry Bowler and Civil Rights for Families president Tony Andrade. Numerous conservative organizations, including the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), have signed on in support. Gayle Knight, the widow of Senator Pete Knight, along with Natalie Wood from the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund and Phillip Kell of California Family Alliance are among the sponsors of the other two initiatives.

Petitions are currently circulating to gather the necessary signatures to qualify for the ballot in 2006.

According to Equality for All, anti-gay groups have launched a $10 million campaign to pass two ballot initiatives aimed for California’s June 6 primary election. The initiatives would amend California’s constitution to permanently ban marriage protections for same-sex partners and eliminate the benefits, rights and responsibilities for legally recognized domestic partners. Among these are the rights to hospital visitation and medical decision making; insurance, health, retirement and death benefits; ownership and transfer of property; and inheritance. There are currently 1,138 federal rights and hundreds of state rights that are denied to same-sex couples who cannot legally marry.

Equality for All formed in May in response to the looming threat of these initiatives. The campaign’s committee consists of representatives from a number of state and national organizations, including Equality California, the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, The Center, Bienestar and the ACLU.

Equality California has launched the Twelve Days of Equality, a campaign to stress to the general public the importance of passing Assembly Bill 849, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said that he would veto the bill, which passed the Legislature last week, but legislators who supported the bill have been able to delay it from reaching his desk until Sept. 23, hoping they can change his mind.

“We’re urging everyone to contact Schwarzenegger’s office here, throughout the state, especially in Sacramento to let him know how this is affecting your family and why he must not veto this legislation,” said Anthony White of Equality California’s San Diego chapter at Monday’s forum.

Center board member and attorney M.E. Stephens urged the community to stand up in the fight against these initiatives, and said the GLBT community can win this fight with support from allies.

“We win this because we uniquely understand that queer people touch every group of community interest, every group of origin that you can imagine,” Stephens said. “… We touch every community of origin you can conceive of – religious, non-religious, racial, ethnic – we’re there.”

Pacy Markman and Dave Fratello, political and advertising consultants with Zimmerman & Markman, Inc., have been hired by Equality for All to handle all campaign strategies. Fratello will serve as statewide campaign manager for Equality for All. He has worked on 16 statewide initiatives, including five in California.

Markman, who has created advertising for electoral campaigns, public policy and world-wide corporations, said, “We know that this campaign will not be easy but we also know that we’re going to win.”

Fratello said they are completing their first round of public opinion research in order to figure out where they stand, the messages they need to convey and which audiences to target. He said they are building an extensive online campaign that will be the hub for all information related to marriage equality and their organization. The site will launch in early October at http://www.equalityforallca.org.

“San Diego is going to be vital for this campaign,” Fratello said. “This is a swing county. This county looks a lot like the rest of the state. We need to pick up votes here. This is going to be a close election.”

Dale Kelley Bankhead, co-chair of San Diegans Against Marriage Discrimination, outlined the different sub-coalitions Equality for All is forming, which includes the African-American, Latino and Asian Pacific Islander communities as well as various religious organizations.

Equality California and a coalition of local groups will be taking part in a statewide event next Tuesday, Sept. 20. Children and families from across the county will be converging on Governor Schwarzenegger’s downtown San Diego office, which is located at 1350 Front St. They will be meeting outside the State Building at 3:30 p.m. holding signs reading “Don’t Veto My Family!” At 4:00 p.m. they plan to go inside the building to hand-deliver thousands of postcards in support of marriage equality.