Executive Commentary for Diversity in Philanthropy Website
Roger Doughty, Executive Director, Horizons Foundation
The California Supreme Court’s ruling on Proposition 8 surprised few, but that made it no less heartbreaking. The Court couched its decision as about little more than a matter of classification, but this isn’t an argument over a word, an abstraction called “marriage.” It’s about our lives. It’s about some of the deepest parts of being human, touching family, relationships and love. That’s why, on the morning after Proposition 8 passed, the five-year-old daughter of lesbian friends of mine asked her moms, “Are we still a family?” That’s why thousands and thousands of LGBT people and our allies marched through streets across the state the night of the Court’s decision. Their pain and anger were—are—very real.
The Court’s ruling should worry all of those who care about creating an America of equality and inclusion, for its scope exceeds the issue of same-sex marriage. The decision permits a majority to deny to a minority a fundamental right that the majority itself enjoys—even if that majority is inspired by prejudice against a disfavored group. Today, that’s LGBT people. Tomorrow, it could be another minority population, especially here in California, where anyone with a million dollars and even modest organizing ability can get a measure on the ballot.
The issues raised by Proposition 8 and the Court’s ruling go well beyond the LGBT community. Who gets to participate in our social institutions? What does equality mean when a majority can deny a right to an unpopular minority? Does the ruling mean that separate is sometimes “equal enough”? How do we answer that five-year-old girl’s question?
It’s not a coincidence that the political and legal dramas around same-sex marriage are playing out as the philanthropic sector wrestles with issues of diversity and inclusion. Both reflect the seismic changes taking place across the country, the epic shifts in demographics, expectations and the type and scale of societal challenges we face. Issues of diversity, equality, and access—and the people affected by them—simply won’t wait anymore. In a post-Proposition 8 world, that’s certainly true of LGBT people: Nothing less than full equality will do.
We know we’ll get there. The advent of marriage equality in Iowa, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts leave little doubt about the ultimate outcome of the marriage wars. Yet, including California, fully 29 states have adopted constitutional amendments barring same-sex marriage. It’s going to take a while, and as many have learned before us, the tolls paid along the road to equality are heavy.
There’s an enormous, largely hidden, cost to the LGBT community of having to win and protect basic rights, especially in the face of determined, well-financed attacks in state after state. The fight is hugely expensive—more than $40 million had to be raised to fight Proposition 8 alone—and exacts a crushing opportunity cost, draining scarce dollars away from non-profits working to meet all the other needs of LGBT people, including youth, the elderly, the sick, the homeless, the unrepresented, the poor, the shut-out and the shut-in.
Now that the Supreme Court has upheld Proposition 8, LGBT Californians and their allies have no choice but to return to the ballot. We’re going to have to do the same thing in other states, as that’s the only route to undoing constitutional amendments. Every time and in every state in which we have to fight for this fundamental right, it comes at enormous cost.
The fact is that the LGBT community can’t afford this, especially at a time of severe economic turmoil. That may surprise some, as it runs counter to the common stereotype that we’re disproportionately wealthy. In fact, LGBT people do not enjoy higher incomes than heterosexuals and experience comparable poverty rates. Children of same-sex couples are twice as likely to live in poverty as children of heterosexual couples. Men of color in same-sex couples earn significantly less than men of color in different-sex relationships.
This myth of LGBT affluence is as a significant obstacle, especially within the field of philanthropy where it discourages non-LGBT foundations from taking serious interest in supporting the LGBT community. And that support will be vital, especially as long as LGBT people and dollars have to be diverted to the struggle for our basic rights and equality.
But this moment also presents important opportunities to our sector. First and foremost, this historic moment—a defining one in the struggle for full equality—creates an opening for us to reflect on our own personal and institutional commitments to making the United States a true land of equality. For foundations that fund in specific geographic regions, there’s opportunity to respond to the needs of their local LGBT communities. For thousands of private and public foundations, there’s opportunity to expand their grantmaking to include LGBT population(s) within existing grantmaking priorities like youth, education, communities of color, health, and poverty. For LGBT groups, there’s the chance to build some of the cross-sector alliances that were lacking in last year’s campaign.
In the end, the California Supreme Court’s decision on Proposition 8 handed down not just a legal ruling, but a challenge as well. How are we going to build a society for 21st century America that fully includes all of its members—including its LGBT members? How will our field help—actively help—that society come into being? A lot hangs on how we answer those questions.
Roger Doughty is the Executive Director of the Horizons Foundation, a 29-year-old community foundation based in and dedicated to the LGBT community in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. He has played a number of leadership roles in the LGBT movement over the past two decades.