Reaction on Prop. 8 ruling from Cynthia Nixon, Wanda Sykes, Christopher Rice and Margaret Cho

With Rosie O’Donnell now largely absent from the front lines of the LGBT equal rights scene, it is Cynthia Nixon who has emerged as one of our most outspoken and articulate activists. Here is what the Emmy-Tony-Grammy winning star had to say about today’s California Supreme Court ruling that upholds Proposition 8 which bans same-sex marriage in the state:

“Upholding the discriminatory Proposition 8 marks May 26, 2009 as a dark day for the people of California. The idea that gay families like mine should not be included in our country’s promise of equal rights for all citizens is deeply un-American. While California has taken a giant step backwards, states like Maine and Iowa (and soon, I hope, New York) are leading with way towards a fairer and better tomorrow.”

Margaret Cho made no attempt to contain her Margaret Cho made no attempt to contain her bitter disappointment: “I am outraged and disgusted, but this is only a momentary setback,” she said. “We will soon win back this right and the victory will be even more thrilling because we had to fight so hard to get it.”

Wanda Sykes, a newlywed and a new mom, said: “I’m deeply disappointed, but also very optimistic that we will return to the polls and restore marriage equality for same sex couples.”

Author Christopher Rice had much to say about the ruling and what he thinks it means about California’s entire political system: “The California supreme court and the gay and lesbian residents of the state are the victims of a backward proposition system that must be abolished if the state is to be restored to social and financial stability. Proposition 13 had done untold economic damage to California’s infrastructure, and now Proposition 8 has reduced us to a cultural backwater and created a bewildering two-class system of gay and lesbian people that is profoundly un-American by its very nature.”

“Even worse, Proposition 8 exemplifies the degree to which obscenely wealthy interests from outside the state can manipulate the proposition system to enable religious radicals to enforce their social agenda on the majority of America’s West Coast. Let no one for a minute paint this as a war of believers versus nonbelievers. Any Christian with a good conscience knows Jesus weeps for those who willfully restrict the right of others to engage in peaceful, largely interior acts of self-realization that pose no physical threat to other members of their community. The hostility toward gay and lesbian people exhibited by the supporters of Proposition 8 originates from those who feel a sense of powerlessness and frustration over the endemic social problems within their own communities, be they working-class Latinos or Orange County Republicans. Denying gays and lesbians equal protection under the law will never restore the semblance of order to social communities that have been upset by financial inequality or spreading social enlightenment among younger generations. This absence of self-awareness combined with a gross perversion of religious principles deserves to be called by no other name than what it actually is — mental illness.”