Photo courtesy of API Equality-LA
equality in Los Angeles, using oneon-one conversations, outreach at community festivals and through ethnic media, coalition-building, and even filing an API-specific amicus brief before the state Supreme Court. API Equality-LA also successfully drew parallels between the past struggles of Asian immigrants against anti-miscegenation laws with the current movement for marriage equality. A November 2008 exit poll found that API voters in Southern California favored the defeat of Proposition 8 by 54 percent to 46 percent, a dramatic shift from the 68 percent to 32 percent split among APIs in 2000 on Proposition 22, an earlier ballot measure against gay marriage. While the battle is not won in the API community—recent exit polls still show significant pockets of opposition to gay marriage amongst some APIs—the changes in Los Angeles’ API community inspire hope for our future. It also illustrates the type of change that is possible when we work to unite different struggles for equality un-
Two things are required: one, the emergence of “border bridgers,” leaders who can look beyond the needs of their own constituents to find common ground with others; and two, the intentional investment of time and resources to educate our diverse communities, either through highlighting parallels or showing broader impact, about how our different struggles for equality fall under one, larger vision for justice. der one umbrella. The fight against Proposition 8 squarely brought into the limelight the fact that, in order to end the structural inequality that exists in California, which has those with the least fighting with each other over scraps instead of
challenging inequality itself, it will no longer be sufficient for us to conduct business as usual. We need to work together, not only to achieve victories and advances in equality, but also to prevent further attempts to diminish our freedoms.
Justice in California
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