Queer Town: Proposition 8, A Year Later

It's been a long year since Proposition 8 was passed on November 4, 2008, when the existing right to legally marry in California was shockingly taken away from gays and lesbians.

Patrick Range McDonald

Days before Prop. 8 was passed, pro-gay marriage supporters took to the streets in West Hollywood.

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That soul-wrenching vote, however, placed same sex marriage, and gay rights in general, in the national spotlight, and brought forth a new wave of political activism among gay rights advocates and their straight allies.

In fact, a case can be made that Los Angeles -- not San Francisco or New York -- was ground zero for all of that political activity, with CNN broadcasting to the world images of gays, lesbians, and their straight friends marching in the streets of L.A. soon after Proposition 8 was passed.

Here's a time line of major, Prop. 8-related events that have happened over the past year, and L.A. Weekly's award-winning coverage of it.

On November 4, 2008, California voters pass Proposition 8, with anti-gay marriage forces winning Los Angeles County, the major swing county in the state. In the following days, gays, lesbians, and their straight friends take to the streets of Los Angeles and give rise to a new generation of grassroots leaders in the gay rights movement.

(L.A. Weekly, November 7, 2008, "A Changing of the Guard at the Westwood March") 

Patrick Range McDonald

Pro-gay marriage marchers in Westwood in November, 2008.

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Also in November, "No on 8" leaders come under tremendous scrutiny for what many critics describe as a poorly run political campaign.

(L.A. Weekly, November 12, 2008, "Dirty Laundry Over Prop. 8")

Several months later, in March, 2009, pro-gay marriage groups seek help from the California Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8.

(L.A. Weekly, March 11, 2009, "New Gay-Marriage War Coming to California")

In May, the California Supreme Court refuses to invalidate Proposition 8, which sets off another night of marching and a new ballot measure effort among gay rights groups to pass a pro-gay marriage initiative in 2010 or 2012.