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← back to comics journalism the nib · 2018 · 30 panels

It’s Been a Decade Since Prop 8. Marriage Equality Isn’t Enough.

Written and illustrated by Elizabeth Beier

Ten years after California voted to take marriage away, three organisers on what was won, what was not, and who is still being targeted.

before you read

This piece reports on family rejection and includes a statistic on suicide among queer teenagers.

In blue monochrome, the Obama family stands on an election night stage waving to a crowd. A caption reads that on November 4th 2008 she celebrated the election of Barack Obama.
A grim faced woman with long dark hair and glasses stands beneath a roadside billboard showing a stick figure family with arms raised and the words Yes on 8, Restore Marriage. The caption says she mourned the passage of Prop 8.
A tiered white wedding cake topped with two brides floats like an iceberg, its enormous submerged blue mass lettered with the line that the fight for queer liberation is far from over. A caption above notes that ten years later marriage equality is legal across America.
A pink toned portrait of a bald man in a dark buttoned shirt, hands raised mid gesture. A banner names him David Fleischer, director of the Leadership Lab at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, and his balloon says that no matter what policies we enact, the ultimate goal is getting rid of prejudice.
Hand lettered dark blue text on a loose pale blue watercolour wash, with no figures, explaining that same sex marriage first became legal in California in June 2008 when the state supreme court found banning it was against the state constitution.
Two older women in glasses and coats stand forehead to forehead, holding each other's hands and arms, drawn entirely in blue ink and wash against a soft blue halo. There is no lettering.
A soft blue painted rectangle holds only hand lettering, explaining that anti gay activists then put Prop 8 on the ballot to amend the state constitution, followed by the ballot language in white italics.
Two stacked blue panels restage a television commercial: a little girl in pigtails runs up to her mother at a kitchen table, then beams in close up. A tag below labels the scene as a Yes on 8 TV ad.
White hand lettering on a dense slate blue cloud of paint, with no figures, explaining that the Yes on 8 campaign targeted parents with homophobic TV ads, that it worked, and that many Democrats were swayed late in the race. The final line, set larger and alone, reads that it passed.
A wide blue and grey crowd scene of a street protest. The author, a bespectacled woman in a dark coat, shouts at centre while marchers around her raise a rainbow flag and hand lettered signs. Captions read that as a young bisexual woman with queer family and friends, she took to the streets when protests against Prop 8 erupted across the country.
On the steps of the US Supreme Court a woman in a pinstriped suit throws her arms wide in triumph while supporters cheer beside her, one holding a sign about repealing DOMA. The caption says that after marching, canvassing and years of activism she was at the Supreme Court in 2013 when the federal Defense of Marriage Act was struck down.
A scroll lettered Obergefell versus Hodges unfurls over a blue sea with a gavel resting at its base. The caption says she celebrated when the Supreme Court legalised marriage equality nationwide in 2015.
A muted olive green wash of paint holds only black hand lettering, with no figures, reading that marriage is not everything.
A green toned portrait of a Black man with a moustache in a blazer over a V neck sweater, speaking calmly. A banner identifies him as Milton Davis, former director of the Jordan Rustin Coalition, and his balloon says he still believes the group most under threat is trans youth of colour.
White hand lettering on a deep blue painted block, no figures drawn, stating that anti queer prejudice continues to impact people socially, culturally and economically, and that it can be deadly.
A blue toned scene at a front door: a worried teenager in a striped shirt and cap stands in the foreground while two parents in the doorway behind point him out of the house, potted flowers wilting at the left. The caption states that queer teens die by suicide and are homeless more often than their straight peers, often as a result of family rejection, with a small banner adding that up to forty percent of homeless youth are queer.
Black hand lettering on a light blue cloud of paint, with no figures, stating that in many states it is legal for someone to be fired for their sexual orientation or gender identity, with the word fired set in heavy bold.
A hand drawn map of the United States colour coded by employment protections, above a hand lettered key covering states with no protections, states prohibiting discrimination on sexual orientation and gender identity, states covering sexual orientation only, and states covering public workers. The source line credits the Human Rights Campaign state maps.
A flat blue silhouette of Donald Trump's head in profile, filled with pale hand lettering following the curve of his jaw, noting that just one year after marriage equality was won he won the 2016 presidential election.
A dense blue crowd of protesters fills the frame under a bright sky, raising a rainbow flag, a fist and several hand lettered signs. White lettering across the sky reads that a new resistance was born.
An orange toned portrait of a woman with long wavy brown hair in a dark top, speaking. A ribbon names her Brynn Tannehill, former Navy pilot and current activist and writer, and her balloon says that most of the anti LGBT work being done focuses on transgender people, naming campaigns in Anchorage, HB2 in North Carolina and the Houston rights ordinance.
A small circular inset portrait of Brynn Tannehill in the upper left feeds a large orange speech balloon filling the page, saying that transgender people in the military and transgender refugees and immigrants are under the most direct attack because they have fewer constitutional protections.
Donald Trump scowls down at a phone gripped in both hands against a background of orange flames, with two black Twitter birds perched on his hands. A tweet lettered across his chest announces that the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in the military.
A wide orange toned party scene packed with smiling faces under string lights, each person tagged with a ribbon banner reading butch, non binary, gender queer, intersex, F2M, femme or trans. Balloons from an inset portrait of Brynn Tannehill say that inroads can continue through cultural understanding of gender, sex, gender identity and gender expression, and that non binary people are real.
A small round inset portrait of Milton Davis in the upper left connects to a large lime green speech balloon filling the page, praising the National Center for Transgender Equality for focusing on advocacy by young people who are affected, and noting that getting more of the disenfranchised involved in the processes that shape policy is both rewarding in the short term and leadership building in the long term.
A small round inset portrait of David Fleischer in the upper left feeds a large pink speech balloon covering the page, warning that the Masterpiece Cakeshop case could go against LGBT people either narrowly or broadly and could undermine nondiscrimination laws in a way that impacts all people, and that not only have we not won, we may be about to take a very painful step backward.
A four tier pink wedding cake sits on a dark plate, its top tier knocked loose and toppling sideways with drips falling from it, against a mottled magenta wash. There is no lettering.
In a magenta panel a curly haired woman at a table marks a ballot beside a ballot box, with a tiny devil on one shoulder labelled bigotry and fear and a tiny angel on the other labelled love and compassion. An inset portrait of David Fleischer notes that most people are conflicted, that those against us can be reached and those with us could be susceptible to homophobic advertising, and a caption adds that we have to keep talking to as many people as we can to stamp out prejudice.
Against a bright orange circle a smiling woman in a black top drops a ballot marked vote into a box with one hand and raises a fist with the other, surrounded by hand lettered balloons urging readers to get out and vote, get others to vote, be vocal, challenge anti LGBT bigotry rather than let it slide, support each other, and not let anyone tell them they cannot make a difference.
A hand drawn imagined front page of a newspaper dated June 1st 2028 lies folded on a blue surface, its headlines describing a decade of sweeping progress for the queer community, zero anti transgender hate crimes, queer youth no longer at elevated suicide risk, and equal employment and housing nondiscrimination laws enforced nationwide. A ribbon across the bottom reads let us keep making history.

Originally published by The Nib. Republished here by the author, who holds the rights. Every panel carries a description for screen readers.

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