Yes, then he came out on TV and bragged “It’s going to happen, whether you like it or now!”.
The anti-gay people ran that clip over and over, so then California voters approved the Proposition 8 marriage ban in 2008. Voters did not like the idea of it being crammed down their throats. This in a Liberal state. Everyone said that clip was what passed Prop 8. Now sure- FIVE YEARS later the courts overturned it, but that was five years of no Gay marriage.
*Proposition 8, the ban on same-sex marriage, was a big topic during the 2008 election, and Newsom was a prominent and vocal opponent.[10] In the months leading up to Election Day, Proposition 8 supporters released a commercial featuring Newsom saying the following words in a speech regarding same-sex marriage: “This door’s wide open now. It’s going to happen, whether you like it or not.”[11] Some observers noted that polls shifted in favor of Proposition 8 following the release of the commercial; this, in turn, led to much speculation about Newsom’s unwitting role in the passage of the amendment.[11][12][13][14][15] For instance, a January 2009 Newsweek article states:*
> [A]sk average Californians what they remember about Newsom at the moment, and they’re likely to offer six words: “whether you like it or not”. That’s what Newsom said about gay marriage—it was coming to California, and America, whether you like it or not. He said it in a speech, shortly after the California Supreme Court extended marriage rights to gays and lesbians. But his words were captured for posterity in an ad for Proposition 8, the ballot initiative seeking to reverse that decision. The ad begins with footage of a gloating Newsom grinning widely and gesturing broadly as he exclaims “the door’s wide open, it’s going to happen, whether you like it or not” . . . . Airing across the state, the ad was viewed as among the most effective in support of the ban. > > > > [11]
Whereas, if he hadn’t done it, it would have been… five years of no gay marriage.
Dude’s got my support for pretty much anything he wants to do politically for the rest of his life. He stood up for us when a lot of so-called allies were fretting about hurting the 'phobes feelings.
Not at all. Prop 8, banning gay marriage passed due to his- “This door’s wide open now. It’s going to happen, whether you like it or not." statement.
If he had just done the marriages and not crowed about them like they were being crammed down voters throats whether they liked it or not then Prop 8 would not have passed.
Bullshit. The people who supported prop 8 weren’t angry because one mayor of a smallish city talked down to them, they were angry that gay people were being allowed to marry. “Newsom was mean to me, so I had to vote to strip people of their rights,” is the excuse they offered so they wouldn’t have to own their bigotry.
Don’t know how much effect it had, but I’m certain that it was a sound bite that pumped up the anti-SSM forces. They probably would have found something else, but if feels like a bit of a self-own (sort of like “defund the police” is much to0 easy to negative spin, “whether you like it or not” is going to get a set of people to say “well, voting yes on Prop 8 will stop it” who might not have cared enough otherwise).
Well, my cite specifically said it likely did. Newsweek said it likely did. They ran that ad with the clip over and over.
Now, you want to blame the anti-gay bigots that ran the ad, that is fine. But they swayed the voters with that clip.
And SF is one of the two leading Cities in CA, which is why so many politicians out of there win statewide office, such as Newsom,Feinstein and Harris. Not to mention Pelosi. It is LA, SF, Sac, and SD.
That’s not a cite, that’s just an opinion piece by someone who doesn’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, and is making up shit to fill column inches. Thirty other states passed constitutional amendments banning gay marriage prior to Obergefell with out Gavin Newsom. Only two states voted down bans. It would have been nice if California had been one of them, but it wasn’t, and it wasn’t because of Gavin Newsom, it was because a majority of the California electorate turned out to be garbage people.
No one in CA would call the Mayor of the most important politically city in this state “one mayor of a smallish city”. Mayor of SF is a step to big things in this state.
Well, one consequence is the repeated use of the giggle inducing “crammed down our throats” that always comes up in any discussion of gays or gay marriage. I find that to be entertaining as it self-identifies the poster’s leanings, just like a MAGA hat would in real life.
Newsom was the Mayor, Harris the DA, Feinstein the mayor, Nancy Pelosi is the Rep from SF district.
Anyone from CA knows that San Francisco is the most influential city in CA, politics -wise.
Now, “San Francisco Democrat” stands for something else—a governing force that not only dominates the Golden State but has produced some of the defining figures of the Democratic Party. Nancy Pelosi is the most powerful House speaker in a generation. Dianne Feinstein is the doyenne of the Senate. Gavin Newsom, governor of California, is seen as future presidential timber.
I was born in San Francisco, and have lived in the Bay Area my entire life. I don’t need your political lessons, and I’m not interested in you nitpicking my phrasing.
The politicians DrDeth mentioned are all current office holders, unlike Nixon, who’s been dead for twenty-five years. The issue isn’t the importance of San Francisco in liberal politics, its the idea that support for Proposition 8 was significantly driven by Newsom’s rhetoric, and not opposition to gay rights in general. It wasn’t Newsom’s tone that drove Californians to strip gay people of their marriage rights, it was opposition to the idea that gay people deserved to be treated as equal citizens.