In anticipation of early voting beginning Monday, UT students held an all-night rally Sunday night to oppose the Proposition 2 state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. The Campus Alliance Against Inequality sponsored the event, which was scheduled to take place on the West Mall of campus between 8 p.m. Sunday and 8 a.m. Monday.
Jake Holbrook, a spokesman for the organization, said he believes there is a good chance the amendment will be defeated because fewer people are expected to vote in an off-year election.
"People have to go out of their way to vote for discriminatory legislation, and I don't think they will," he said. "A lot of people that would vote for this amendment think they've already won."
Leaders from both the Young Conservatives of Texas and College Republicans of Texas said they supported the amendment but neither group had plans for a counter-demonstration to the rally. Tristen Molina, executive director of the Young Conservatives of Texas, said he hopes the measure passes but believes marriage being defined between a man and a woman is already protected by Texas law.
"This measure is more or less a precautionary measure to avoid future judges misinterpreting the Constitution," he said.
For the rally, three local bands, the Mumblebee, Pajamas and Acquired Taste, were scheduled to kick off the event, said Holbrook. After the bands finish, the rally planned "Campus Storm Phase 2" to place flyers in kiosks around campus, followed by a drum circle performed by a local co-op. Plans for the rest of the evening consist of playing board games, listening to music on iPods and eating S'mores, Holbrook said.
Holbrook said the organization formed in August to draw attention to the proposed amendment, and about 200 volunteers have contributed in some way or another.
"I would say about a third of them are straight, but don't agree with this amendment," he said. The group has been registering voters and collecting pledge cards to vote against the amendment since school started and Holbrook said more than 2,100 students have also pledged to vote against the amendment.
Holbrook said he was unsure how many people will attend, but e-mails have been sent out to all 2,100 people who pledged to vote against the amendment.
"We could see 50 or we could see as many as 300," he said.
Jordan Root, chairman of the College Republicans at Texas, acknowledged the importance of getting people to vote, but did not see any benefits to staging a rally.
"They can protest. That won't be effective. We can counter-protest. That's not going to be effective either," he said.
Root says that while he thinks 70 percent to 80 percent of Texans support the proposition, many will not go vote. He says polling anticipates only three percent to five percent of Texans will vote in this election.
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