Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 165, NO. 52 | Thursday November 6, 2008
By nicole dailo
Daily Trojan
Proposition 8, a measure eliminat-ing
the rights of same-sex couples to
marry in California, has passed by a
margin of 52.5 to 47.5 percent, bring-ing
disappointment to many gay-rights
activists and surprise on both
sides of the controversial measure.
Jarod Wunneburger, a junior ma-joring
in sociology and executive di-rector
of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual,
Transgender Assembly, said he had
expected the proposition to fail.
“For me it felt like a bad morning
after. I kind of hurt all over,” he said.
“Because California sets precedents
for a lot of the country, [Prop 8] pass-ing
is a huge deal for the LGBT com-munity.
... I was surprised to see the
numbers so close.”
Ben Myers, chairman of the USC
College Republicans, said he was
pleasantly surprised by the outcome,
and that it is a step in the right direc-tion
for California.
“This is labeled a hard right propo-sition,
but if it was a hard right prop-osition
there’s no way it would have
passed in such a blue state, so I think
that’s the lesson here, and it’s very en-couraging,”
Myers said. “I think it’s
incredible. It’s basically just a miracle
that it happened like this.”
The proposition had been trail-ing
by a waide margain in the polls,
though the race had closed consid-erably
in the weeks before Tuesday’s
vote.
Already on Wednesday, opponents
had filed lawsuits to strike down the
proposition, saying it was an illegal
amendment of California’s constitu-tion.
The state Supreme Court has be-fore
struck down similar measures.
Proposition 8 was added to the
state ballot after a California Supreme
Court ruling May that threw out a
previous statute and opened the door
for gay marriage. In the ruling, the su-preme
court found that preventing
gays from marrying was unconsitu-tional.
Prop 8 will amend the consti-tution
to ban gay marriage.
Opponents of the measure said they
were frustrated by what they deemed
questionable campaign tactics.
“I think part of what caused it to
pass is that the Yes on 8 campaign used
some pretty dirty tricks. ... They used
a lot of scare tactics,” Wunneberger
said. “I think it’s unfortunate that
they had to stoop to that.”
Many members of USC’s gay and
lesbian community said they were
concerned with how the proposition
will impact life in California.
Kim Buchanan, an assistant pro-fessor
of law at the USC Gould School
of Law, said Prop 8 has far-reaching
effects for constitutional law in this
state.
“The reason that we have individ-ual
rights in our constitution ... is to
protect unpopular minorities from
laws that will hurt them,” she said.
“[Because of Prop 8] the equal protec-tion
guarantee now in itself authoriz-es
some discrimination, and that’s a
real fundamental change to what we
understand equal protection guaran-tees
to do.”
InDEX
2 · News Digest
4 · Opinion
7 · Lifestyle
10 · Sudoku
12 · Classified
16 · Sports
Zombie Nation: New
movie ‘REPO! The Genetic
Opera’ opens Friday. PAGE 7
Clay Day: Matthews makes his
mark in final season. PAGE 16
Opponents coping
with pass of Prop 8
Opponents of the measure
vowed that their fight would
continue to go on.
| see prop 8, page 11 |
Dieuwertje Kast | Daily Trojan
Still fighting · Opponents of Proposition 8 vowed to keep fighting for same-sex marriage rights
Wednesday night at a rally in West Hollywood. Prop 8, which bans gay marriage, was passed Tuesday.
By Juliana Appenrodt
Daily Trojan
USC and UCLA are extending
their crosstown rivalry this week
by going head-to-head, but this
time it’s not about sports.
Students from the two schools
are competing to see which cam-pus
can register the most people
for the National Marrow Donor
Program, a registry that saves
lives by connecting people with a
variety of illnesses to those will-ing
to donate bone marrow.
The USC vs. UCLA Bone
Marrow Challenge, which will
continue Thursday and Friday
at both campuses, was inspired
by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s
Deputy Bob Corrales, who was di-agnosed
with leukemia in April
and is in need of a lifesaving bone
marrow transplant.
But Corrales is of a mixed eth-nic
background, which makes
finding a bone marrow match
more difficult.
“Most people aren’t just
Mexican or just Chinese. Like me
— I’m both,” Corrales said. “When
it comes to a bone marrow trans-plant,
your ethnic background is
what counts.”
Nancy Ullman, a USC alumna
and friend of the Corrales family,
said she helped come up with the
idea for the crosstown competi-tion
while brainstorming with
Corrales’ wife, Olga, in August.
Originally, they were going to
put together a drive for Corrales
at several sheriff stations be-cause
sheriffs can register to do-nate
marrow at no cost, Ullman
said. She soon learned that stu-dents
can also register at no cost
because NMDP has government
funding and grants for this pur-pose.
“We’re looking to get a wide
range of donors, since, when
getting bone marrow, one has to
look at ancestry,” Ullman said.
“We wanted to get the word out
in a big way.”
There is no better place to do
this than on two very diverse col-lege
campuses, especially two
schools that are crosstown rivals,
she said.
“The idea spurred from the
fact that I know how competi-tive
the two schools are,” Ullman
said. “The rivalry has deep roots
and it spreads far and wide in Los
Angeles.”
There will be a scoreboard on
both campuses which will be up-dated
frequently throughout each
day of the challenge to show the
number of students registered on
each campus.
Valerie Sun, a USC graduate
whose life was saved when she re-ceived
a bone marrow transplant
after her freshman year of col-lege
in 1999, said she thinks the
competitive nature of the bone
USC and UCLA drive for bone marrow
The bone marrow drive will
take place on both campuses
until Friday afternoon.
| see marrow, page 6 |
Kendrick Wong | Daily Trojan
Bloods · A volunteer works Wednesday’s bone marrow drive.
MORE FROM
THE 2008 ELECTION
The youth vote
Young voters played an
usually influential role in
Tuesday’s election.
Page 3.
California Proposition Results 2008
Proposition 4
Proposition 3
Proposition 5
Proposition 6
Yes No
52% 48%
Proposition 1A
No
52% Yes
Proposition 2 48%
No
60% Yes
40%
Proposition 7
Yes
63% No
37%
Yes No 55% 45%
No
69% Yes
31%
No
Yes
35%
65%
Proposition 8
Proposition 9
Yes
52.5%
No
47.5%
Yes
53.5% No
46.5%
Proposition 12
No
40%
Proposition 10
Proposition 11
Yes
51%
Yes
63.5% No 36.5%
60% Yes
No
49%
Jenny McCorkle | Daily Trojan