This afternoon I got an email from Art Torres (Chair of the CDP), asking me to "Fight for equality" via decline-to-sign. Torres reminded me that the newly adopted platform of the California Democratic Party includes:

* Support nondiscrimination and equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people in all aspects of their lives.
* We support the LGBT Community in its quest for the right to legal marriage as well as the clergy's complete religious freedom to solemnize marriages in accordance with their beliefs.

He was talking, of course, about this year's Mothra vs. Return of the Son of Outlawing Gay Marriage, currently working to complete the signature gathering necessary to qualify for the ballot later this year. In the hopes of preventing yet another time and money consuming fight to protect equality, volunteers are mobilizing throughout the state over the next week for a 'decline to sign' campaign (Rapid Response Team signup) in opposition to the predictably shady, pay-per-sig tactics of the other side.

But the Torres email was just one more in a run of news on the anti-equality proposition. This past Thursday, I was out at a concert here in San Diego and the crowd was full of decline-to-sign signature gatherers who were spreading the word and recruiting volunteers at an impressive clip. The next day, Governor Schwarzenegger popped down to San Diego and blasted the anti-equality maneuvering while talking to Log Cabin Republicans. Coincidentally, at the same event was San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders who memorably and tearfully reversed a long standing opposition to marriage equality last fall.

That's a powerful string of momentum in support of equality, but that doesn't mean these folks are going to roll over and concede the fight. Whether it's through Art Torres' pitch or any number of other local and state organizations who have begun organizing against this proposition, this is the final week for signature gathering. This week will determine whether the proposition qualifies for the ballot and, if it does make it, our experience now will lay the groundwork for the fight through to election day.

The Declaration of Independence leads off with equality. The fight to protect it continues.