2010 For Prop 8 Attempt? Yes! No!

Members of the “leaderless” marriage equality movement voted this weekend in California to attempt to overturn Prop 8 in 2010.

A straw poll of same sex marriage leaders gathered in San Bernardino Saturday just came in: The majority want to return to the ballot in 2010 to try to overturn Proposition 8. Final count of the nonbinding measure: 93 people voted to go in 2010, 49 in 2012 and 20 undecided. The next step: Leaders will return to their organizations and then a final decision will be made in a couple of weeks. If they’re going to go for it in 2010, they’d better hurry. Ballot language is due to the Attorney General by Sept. 25. Oh, yeah. And they still need a leader. And a leadership structure. And a decision-making process.

September 25th is awful soon. Today the New York Times wrote about the internal dissent on a 2010 ballot attempt.

Earlier this year, many supporters of same-sex marriage seemed eager to mount a 2010 campaign to overturn Proposition 8, which was passed by California voters in November and defined marriage as “between a man and a woman.” But the timing of another campaign has since been questioned by several of the movement’s big donors, including David Bohnett, a millionaire philanthropist and technology entrepreneur who gave more than $1 million to the unsuccessful campaign to defeat Proposition 8. “In conversations with a number of my fellow major No on 8 donors,” Mr. Bohnett said in an e-mail message, “I find that they share my sentiment: namely, that we will step up to the plate — with resources and talent — when the time is right.” “The only thing worse than losing in 2008,” he added, “would be to lose again in 2010.”

Earlier this month a large coalition of LGBT and progressive groups announced their opposition to a 2010 overturn attempt.