A great paradox of the 2008 federal election in which the first African American was elected President is that three states passed referenda to amend their respective state constitutions to prohibit same-sex couples from marrying and Arkansas passed a referendum to preclude unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children.

Eighteen states allow their constitutions to be amended through ballot initiatives without consent by the legislative and/or executive branches.  The remaining states enable their constitutions to be amended by the public after legislative and/or executive action.    Some states require majority approval and others mandate voter approval ranging from 60% to two thirds approval.

The same-sex ballot initiatives exemplify the danger posed to all citizens by stripping away of fundamental rights from marginalized citizens and the importance of the judiciary in protecting civil liberties.

Barack Obama was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961.  In 1961, 16 states not including Hawaii had laws that made miscegenation a crime and branded the offspring of a black and white couple as a bastard.  In 1967, the US Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that miscegenation laws were unconstitutional because they violated the due process clause and equal protection of the 14^th Amendment.

Given prevalent racial animosity in 1961, had racists tried to amend state constitutions to prohibit miscegenation, those ballot initiatives would have been overwhelmingly passed in most states.

During World War II, had xenophobes tried to amend state constitutions to prohibit the civil liberties of Japanese Americans, they would have been easily approved.  State amendments to limit civil liberties could have been readily enacted against immigrants such as the Irish, Chinese and Jews, among others.

A democracy is measured by how it protects minority religious, political, racial and other individual differences.  The US Supreme Court has addressed these concerns in various decisions including Loving v. Virginia and Romer v. Evans.  

In Loving, which overturned Virginia's Racial Integrity Act, Chief Justice Warren writing for a unanimous court ruled that marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man" and that to deny this fundamental freedom on such unsupportable basis as racial classification deprives citizens of liberty without due process of law.

In 1992, Romer v. Evans arose from a ballot initiative titled Amendment 2 to the Colorado constitution that prevented any municipality from protecting homosexual citizens from discrimination.  The initiative passed with 53.4% approval. Amendment 2 was spearheaded by Colorado for Family Values that claimed the anti-discrimination protections for homosexuals in Aspen, Boulder and Denver were special rights that needed to be constitutionally banned.

The Colorado Supreme Court overturned the amendment as a violation of equal protection and ruled was subject to strict scrutiny in which the state needed to prove a compelling state interest, which it had failed to demonstrate.  Colorado appealed the decision to the US Supreme Court.  In 1996, in a 6 to 3 decision, Justices Stevens, O'Connor, Kennedy Souter, Ginsberg and Beyer affirmed the Colorado Supreme Court decision.

Justice Kennedy writing for the majority held that the discrimination in Amendment 2 neither met the strict scrutiny test nor the lower rational relationship to a legitimate state interest. Justice Kennedy stated, "It is not within our constitutional tradition to enact laws of this sort."  He found that laws of this kind "raise the inevitable inference that the disadvantage imposed is born of animosity toward the class of persons affected" and was born of a "desire to harm" homosexuals.

Proposition 8 that prohibits same-sex marriage was passed with 52% approval.  The proposition did not require consent by the legislative and/or executive branches.   Proposition 8 was principally funded by out of state interests including tens of millions by the Mormon Church.  The California Legislature had passed a bill providing for same-sex marriage.  Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the measure because he believed the issue should be decided by the California Supreme Court. 

In 2008, the California Supreme Court decided that the prohibition against same-sex couples from marrying violated the California constitution and was subject to the strict scrutiny.  Governor Schwarzenegger and other prominent California Republicans were among in-state opponents to Proposition 8.

While the four state initiatives represent a setback, there is momentum for full equality including same-sex marriage for gay men and lesbians.  In 2000, 61% of Californians opposed and 39% supported same-sex marriage.  In 2008, those percentages respectively shrunk to 52% v. 48%.

Lambda Legal, ACLU and others are planning to challenge in the California state courts the constitutionality of Proposition 8.  Ultimately the California Supreme Court decision could reach the US Supreme Court.

Five of the six US Supreme Court justices who concurred in Romer v. Evans remain on the court.  We pray for their continued wisdom.

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Equality Forum is a national and international gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization with an educational focus.

Mr. Lazin is a former Assistant US Attorney, who received the US Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award.   He is the former Chair of the Pennsylvania Crime Commission.   He is the recipient of the National Education Association's Creative Leadership in Human Rights Award and is a current Prime Mover of the Hunt Alternatives Fund.

There are some annual events that I truly look forward to attending each year, noting the returning craft artists in addition to discovering new ones visiting and exhibiting our city for the first time. I'm talking about the must-see, must-shop, must-buy the 32nd annual Craft Show, produced by The Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, will return to The Pennsylvania Convention Center, 12^th and Arch Streets in Center City Philadelphia, now through November 16.

It's sustainability and quality on display each year has allowed the show to become (and continue to be) one of the premier exhibitions and sales of contemporary American craft, will feature 195 of the best craft artists in the United States, selected from more than 1,400 applicants by a distinguished panel of jurors.

The jurors for this year's show included internationally recognized crafts experts: Elisabeth Agro, Nancy M. McNeil Associate Curator of Modern & Contemporary Decorative Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; William Hunter, Artist, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA; Elizabeth Shypertt, CO-owner Velvet da Vinci Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Franklin Silverstone, Chairman and CEO of Collectify Collections Management software and the Charles Bronfman Curator.

This year's featured country of the world will be Israel, with crafts artists who will be exhibiting and selling their work for the first time in the show's history.  I have found that over the years it has been both intriguing and entertaining to meet and greet the artists from the country being spotlighted and learn the trends and craft arts being produced.

Chairs of the show, Eve Walker and Nancy C. O'Meara, Show Manager said that this year's show will exhibit a "striking variety of forms and functions, including: glass, baskets, jewelry, fiber wearable, metal, paper, leather, furniture, clay, wood, mixed media, and fiber-decorative works."

"I am honored to be the chairman of the leading show of its type and the largest annual fundraiser for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Our ongoing success depends on the support of outstanding contemporary American craft artists, over 100 committee volunteers, and loyal as well as new visitors to the Show," commented Walker.

Last year 25,000 visitors over a period of four days attended the show that raised funds to purchase works of art and craft for the museum's permanent collections, education programs and to contribute to conservation and publication projects at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Show organizers have again made available a special silent auction online, November 13-16, with proceeds also to benefit the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Show hours will be 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Friday, November 14; 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Saturday, November 15; 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sunday, November 16.

General admission is $15.00. Two-day passes are $20.00. Children under 12 are $5.00. Group sales ill be available for 10 or more visitors.

For more information, call 215.684.7930; visit pmacraftshow.org

Lesbian pioneer Del Martin, one of the nation's lifelong organizers and activists, who also helped found the legendary lesbian group, "Daughters of Bilitis, died in San Francisco, August 28, 2008, reported The Guide (October 8, 2008) in their tribute. Martin who never stopped for a minute advancing the rights of lesbians seemed to have little patience throughout her life for gay male issues, especially as they relate to sexuality and sexual practices. She wrote in the Ladder (June, 1967): "Lesbians are much more concerned with problems of inequality in job and educational opportunities then in the problems of male hustlers and prostitutes." Never afraid to speak her mind, even when her opinions were unpopular or seemed politically incorrect, the native San Franciscoan, who married her lesbian partner of 55 years on June 16, 2008, deplored the closet, by denouncing it, she said: "Nothing was ever accomplished by hiding in a dark corner. Why not discard the hermitage for the heritage that awaits any red bloodied American woman who dares to claim it!"

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Queer fashion icon, designer Christian Siriano, winner of the fourth season of BRAVO's Project Runway, who definitely made his mark both as a talent and a TV personality to be reckoned with. The twenty-two-year-old has accomplished a lot in the one short year as a competitor on one of the most popular reality shows on all of television. But winning the top prize and $100,000 isn't the end of everything or the beginning of something despite the exposure and celebrity status. The graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts and then a stint at the American International University in London, Siriano explained the next challenges of securing his ultimate position in the fashion industry to the editors of Instinct (November 2008) after life on the "staged" runway:  "People should know that the fashion industry is hard at any level. I'm still struggling to keep my name alive. I'm very hands-on, and my team is tiny. I still work out of my home studio even if I'm making Heidi Klum couture! 2009 is going to be a big year for me. My spring collection will be in stores finally, so check out chrisiansiriano.com. I will be doing couture costumes for a new movie, and I have a bunch of other projects that will be more mass-market for a consumer of my own."

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Lesbian icon and award-winning songwriter/performer Melissa Etheridge, toured the nation this past summer, for "Rock to Win," with fellow musical legends, Cyndi Lauper and Rufus Wainwright for Human Rights Campaign from Washington, D. C. to Denver. She talked to Jeffrey Wheeler of OUT FRONT (August 20, 2008) about her roots in the political movement, her commitment to helping to "change the world, making it a better place for more people," and her status of a lesbian icon":  "Oh, gosh, no. I didn't think that it was possible. In the mid-'80's, when I was really trying to break into the business, there was Martina [Navratilova] and Billie Jean King and that was it. I just didn't think it was possible, y'know, when you looked at music. I mean, Janis Joplin was bisexual and that sort of thing, but it was all very hush-hush. I didn't know what I was going to do with my gayness--I knew I wouldn't deny it. That would have made me feel really icky, so everyone just stepped around it. No one really brought it up."

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