By Nick Burns/BERKELEY
Proponents and opponents of Proposition 8 took their get-out-the-vote efforts to the streets — or freeway — today. A dozen volunteers set up camp on a pedestrian overpass near University Avenue in West Berkeley, hanging banners and waving signs as commuters drove along highway 80, a major traffic corridor connecting Sacramento and San Francisco.
Beginning as early as 6:30 in the morning, signs for and against the controversial proposition appeared across the north and southbound sides of the overpass. But by early afternoon, supporters of an amendment to California’s constitution that would ban gay marriage left the scene, leaving a hopeful group of opponents unhindered by competing efforts.
If passed, Proposition 8 would overturn a recent California Supreme Court decision that gay marriage is a constitutional right, and nullify the thousands of legal gay marriages performed in the last few months.
Here, East Bay West Online caught up with one emotional opponent who spent his lunch hour encouraging commuters to vote no on Prop. 8.
