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November 4, 2005 > News > ‘No Nonsense in November’ group campaigns against Proposition 2

‘No Nonsense in November’ group campaigns against Proposition 2

By Lauren Murphy | For the Thresher

By conventional wisdom, the Nov. 8 election should be a quiet one for political geeks on the Rice campus. The tumult of the 2004 presidential election is growing more distant in memory, Houston Mayor and 2006 Rice commencement speaker Bill White is expected to win his contest in a landslide, and odd-year elections are supposed to be boring by definition. But a proposed amendment to the Texas Constitution that would ban gay marriage has made 2005 an active election year for student groups opposing the amendment.

Since August, the Rice chapter of “No Nonsense in November” — a statewide coalition formed to defeat the amendment — has campaigned with aggression. By contrast, support for Proposition 2, as the ballot question is called, has been relatively quiet on campus.

NNN is primarily comprised of students involved with PRIDE, a club that supports gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning students. PRIDE President Laura Bellows, a Brown College senior, said voter turnout for the election could dip as low as 10 percent of eligible voters. “This is an election where your vote is going to mean something,” Bellows said.

That may give these Rice student activists a rare opportunity to play a measurable role in a statewide election. Lovett College junior Ryan Goodland, who started the NNN chapter, said his group’s efforts could make such a difference.

“If our get-out-the-vote push is strong enough, there will be a good chance that Texas will make history in being the first state to defeat one of these amendments,” Goodland said.

An Austin poll showed 44 percent in favor and 53 percent against the amendment.

PRIDE has traditionally been a social organization for GLBT students, but has become more politically active this year due to the relevance of Prop. 2, Bellows said.

“This is an anti-gay measure,” Bellows said. “Therefore, it is something that we should take a political stance on, [which] is very different than supporting some political party.”

Members of NNN staff an educational table outside Fondren Library on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and have gone door-to-door in the neighborhoods around Rice, called Texas voters to remind them to vote Tuesday and gone to Minute Maid Park to hand out leaflets.

The group has also targeted local churches, alleging that the broad language of the proposition would render all marriages illegal. The proposition states in part, “This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.”

Supporters of the amendment have said that people claiming the proposition would ban all marriages are misinterpreting the proposal’s language.

PRIDE has hosted several speakers, including Houston City Controller Anise Parker — the highest-ranking openly gay city official in the 10 largest U.S. cities — to encourage students to vote on equality issues.

Goodland said most students are unaware of the proposition’s ramifications.

“Students are, by and large, supportive of GLBT issues and equality and even same-sex marriage, but a lot of them don’t know about this proposition,” Goodland said.

Goodland and Bellows plan to continue to campaign against the amendment through Tuesday, when they will hand out fliers near neighborhood precincts. Other NNN members will campaign near the Rice precinct.

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