Proposition 1 was a referendum in the Idaho in 1994, concerning gay rights and minority status. The purpose of Proposition 1 was to prevent homosexual people from receiving minority status in the state. The Idaho Citizens Alliance (ICA) petitioned for 2 years for enough signatures to put their initiative on the November 1994 ballot. [1] Proposition 1 was defeated in the polls by a majority vote. [2]
In January 1992, Kelly Walton, leader of the newly established ICA, announced his intention to pass an initiative that would prevent any citizen of Idaho from receiving "special rights" based on their sexual orientation. [3] Supporters of the initiative believed that homosexuality was a choice and that minority status should not be granted for a person's behavior. [4] In order for the initiative to officially make an Idaho ballot, it required signatures. The ICA petitioned and rallied for two years until finally obtaining the required number of signatures to make the November 1994 ballot.
While the ICA petitioned, a pro-LGBT rights group Don't Sign On protested and rallied in opposition. Doing what they could to bring the issue of homosexual rights to the attention of Idaho citizens, Don't Sign On campaigned against Proposition 1 and the ICA. When Focus on the Family voiced anti-homosexual opinions, Don't Sign On and other homosexual supporters held a vigil in front of Family Forum, the Boise office for Focus on the Family. [5] The Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade drew 1,167 people to Boise and the organizers of the event credit the anti-gay initiative for the attendance boost. [6] In August 1994, in order to bring even more attention to their cause, Don't Sign On changed their name to No On One. [7] The No On One Coalition maintained their protests and rallies through the November election. The election came down to the undecided voters who defeated Proposition One.[ citation needed ]
Initiative relating to homosexuality and the state's authority to afford homosexuals minority status; enacting a new chapter, chap. 80, title 67, Idaho Code: providing that no state agency, department or political subdivision shall grant minority status to persons who engage in homosexual behavior; providing that same-sex marriages and domestic partnerships shall not be legally recognized; providing that elementary and secondary school educators shall not discuss homosexuality as acceptable behavior; providing that no state funds shall be expended in a manner that has the effect of accepting or approving homosexuality; limiting to adults access to library materials which address homosexuality; providing that private sexual practices may be considered non-job factors in public employement; and providing a severability clause. Shall the above-entitled measure proposed by Proposition One be approved? [8]
Oregon Ballot Measure 9 was a 1992 citizens' initiative concerning LGBT rights in the state of Oregon. It sought to amend the Oregon Constitution to prohibit anti-discrimination laws regarding sexual orientation and to declare homosexuality to be "abnormal, wrong, unnatural, and perverse". Listing homosexuality alongside pedophilia and sadism and masochism, it has been described as one of the harshest anti-gay measures presented to voters in American history.
California Proposition 187 was a 1994 ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibit illegal immigrants from using non-emergency health care, public education, and other services in the State of California. Voters passed the proposed law at a referendum on November 8, 1994. The law was challenged in a legal suit the day after its passage, and found unconstitutional by a federal district court on November 11. In 1999, Governor Gray Davis halted state appeals of this ruling.
In California, a ballot proposition is a referendum or an initiative measure that is submitted to the electorate for a direct decision or direct vote. If passed, it can alter one or more of the articles of the Constitution of California, one or more of the 29 California Codes, or another law in the California Statutes by clarifying current or adding statute(s) or removing current statute(s).
In the politics of the United States, the process of initiatives and referendums allow citizens of many U.S. states to place new legislation, or to place legislation that has recently been passed by a legislature on a ballot for a popular vote. As of 2023, these processes are only available at state levels, and do not exist for federal legislation. Initiatives and referendums, along with recall elections and popular primary elections, are signature reforms of the Progressive Era; they are written into several state constitutions, particularly in the West. It is a form of direct democracy.
California Proposition 6, informally known as the Briggs Initiative, was a ballot initiative put to a referendum on the California state ballot in the November 7, 1978 election. It was sponsored by John Briggs, a conservative state legislator from Orange County. The failed initiative sought to ban gays and lesbians from working in California's public schools.
Defend Colorado Now (DCN) was a ballot initiative introduced in January 2006 to amend the constitution of Colorado to deny non-emergency public services that are not required by federal law to illegal immigrants in Colorado. It was similar to the recently approved Arizona Proposition 200 (2004), which denied public services to illegal aliens and California Proposition 187 (1994) which was declared unconstitutional by the Federal Appeals Court.
Proposition 2 was a referendum for a state constitutional amendment placed on the ballot by the Texas legislature and approved by the voters at the November 8, 2005 general election. The measure added a new provision to the Texas Constitution, Article 1, Section 32, which provides that "Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman", and "This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage." Texas thus became the nineteenth US state to adopt constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. It was the most populous state to adopt a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage until California passed its ban in November 2008. The amendment was later invalidated after the Supreme Court legalized Same-Sex marriage nationwide following the decision in Obergefell v. Hodges in June 2015, though the amendment is still currently in the Texas Constitution.
Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment intended to ban same-sex marriage; it passed in the November 2008 California state elections and was later overturned in court. The proposition was created by opponents of same-sex marriage in advance of the California Supreme Court's May 2008 appeal ruling, In re Marriage Cases, which followed the short-lived 2004 same-sex weddings controversy and found the previous ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Proposition 8 was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by a federal court in 2010, although the court decision did not go into effect until June 26, 2013, following the conclusion of proponents' appeals.
Amendment 46, also known as the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative, was a proposed initiative on the Colorado ballot for 2008. If ratified, Article II of the Colorado Constitution would have stated:
The State shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.
The 2009 Washington Referendum 71 (R-71) legalized domestic partnership in Washington state, the first statewide referendum in the United States that extended to LGBT people the rights and responsibility of domestic partnership. The bill had passed State Legislature, and it was signed into law by the Governor in May 2009, but opponents gathered enough signatures to put the measure before the voters, who returned ballots by mail over three weeks ending on November 3, 2009, approving the measure 53% to 47%. The new law went into effect 30 days later, on December 3, 2009.
KnowThyNeighbor.org is a non-profit grass roots coalition co-founded in September 2005 by Tom Lang and Aaron Toleos for the purpose of publishing a fully searchable list of the names of people who signed the petition to end same sex marriage in Massachusetts that was sponsored by VoteOnMarriage.org. Knowthyneighbor.org was the first lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) group to pioneer this type of activism.
Proposition 8 of 1911 was an amendment of the Constitution of California that introduced, for the first time, the recall of public officials. This allows the governor, state senators and assemblymen, and other elected officials to be removed from office early by a public vote. It was approved by voters in a referendum held as part of a special election on 10 October. On the same day voters approved two other major political reforms, Proposition 4, which granted women the vote, and Proposition 7, which introduced the initiative and the optional referendum.
California is seen as one of the most liberal states in the U.S. in regard to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights, which have received nationwide recognition since the 1970s. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in the state since 1976. Discrimination protections regarding sexual orientation and gender identity or expression were adopted statewide in 2003. Transgender people are also permitted to change their legal gender on official documents without any medical interventions, and mental health providers are prohibited from engaging in conversion therapy on minors.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the U.S. state of Idaho face some legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT people. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Idaho, and same-sex marriage has been legal in the state since October 2014. State statutes do not address discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; however, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County established that employment discrimination against LGBT people is illegal under federal law. A number of cities and counties provide further protections, namely in housing and public accommodations. A 2019 Public Religion Research Institute opinion poll showed that 71% of Idahoans supported anti-discrimination legislation protecting LGBT people, and a 2016 survey by the same pollster found majority support for same-sex marriage.
Add The Words, Idaho is an LGBTQ2A activist group and political action committee (PAC) in the United States, extant since 2010, which advocates adding the words "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the state's human rights act; this group grew out of several others which had been advocating the same. After ten years, however, Add The Words activist have been unable to achieve even one state-wide protection for LGBTQ2A Idahoans. An associated all-volunteer direct action group, Add The 4 Words Idaho, under the leadership of former state senator Nicole LeFavour, undertook a series of civil disobedience protests beginning on February 3, 2014, at the Statehouse.
The Sodomite Suppression Act, also known as the "Shoot The Gays Initiative" or "Kill The Gays Initiative", was a California ballot initiative proposed by Matt McLaughlin, an Orange County lawyer, that outlines seven measures relating to same-sex people engaging in sodomy including death for anyone who participates. McLaughlin's act calls for the killing of gays and lesbians by "bullets to the head" or "any other convenient method." This proposed initiative is subject to a court order barring it from being distributed for signatures after a Sacramento County judge granted California Attorney General Kamala Harris's request to declare the initiative facially unconstitutional and therefore ineligible to receive a ballot title or summary.
Ballot Measure 13 (1994) was a ballot measure in the U.S. State of Oregon in 1994 concerning gay rights, spousal benefits, access to information, and public education.
2018 Idaho Proposition 2 is an approved ballot initiative that was included on the 2018 General Election ballot on November 6, 2018. Idaho's Proposition 2 is an initiative which addressed the proposed Medicaid gap within the state. This Ballot Initiative was approved and qualified to be included for voting on July 17, 2018, through campaigning and petitioning for signatures to acquire the necessary support of the voting Idaho population to be included for state-wide voting through the 2018 General Election ballot. This initiative moved to expand Medicaid to persons who did not previously qualify. Proposition 2 would expand Medicaid coverage to persons under the age of 65 if their income is below 133% of the Federal Poverty Line (FPL) and are unable to gain medical insurance or coverage through other means.
Amendment 2 was a ballot measure approved by Colorado voters on November 3, 1992, simultaneously with the United States presidential election. The amendment prevented municipalities from enacting anti-discrimination laws protecting gay, lesbian, or bisexual people.