Bonnie Dumanis endorsing Ernie Dronenburg! Really?

At first I thought it was a joke when I heard that District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis had endorsed the re-election campaign of County Clerk Ernest Dronenburg, whose one-man effort to halt marriage equality in San Diego made ugly headlines last year. True, Dumanis has a tendency to endorse the candidates the Republican Party wants her to endorse. But I figured that in this case she’d surely put principles ahead of politics. After all, she’s a proud member of the LGBT community and also a beneficiary of marriage equality, having been married to her long-time partner since 2008.

You can imagine my reaction upon discovering that Dumanis had indeed given the Dronenburg campaign her endorsement – an endorsement she now refuses to rescind.

Dumanis’ support of Dronenburg is such a cynical political act – and such a betrayal to the LGBT community – that I urge her to reconsider, if only out of respect for all the people whose lives were upended by Dronenburg’s behavior. I also urge the LGBT community to make their voices heard on this issue. Perhaps enough pressure will force our district attorney to do the right thing in this case.

To put Dumanis’ actions in proper context, let’s review exactly what Dronenburg did last year. In July, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for marriage equality in California, Dronenburg filed a legal challenge and refused to issue marriage licenses to LGBT couples in San Diego.

According to a report in the San Diego Reader, Dronenburg’s legal challenge was funded by Charles Limandri, a lawyer whose crusade against marriage equality and on behalf of Prop. 8 has been well-documented.

The result was the temporary suspension of marriage licenses for LGBT couples in San Diego. Some couples were forced to travel to Orange County and elsewhere to get married. Some were forced to put their marriage plans on hold. What should have been an exhilarating time in local LGBT history instead became yet another reminder of the bigotry that still exists in some sectors of our community.

Finally, in the face of an enormous public outcry, Dronenburg relented and dropped his legal efforts. His public explanations for his actions never passed the smell test. He claimed he was merely seeking legal “clarification,” a laughably transparent rationale.

In the past I’ve been disappointed by Dumanis’ refusal to take a principled stand against politicians opposed to marriage equality. One example: her 2005 endorsement of Gov. Schwarzenegger ten days after he vetoed the legislature’s marriage equality bill.

But her Dronenburg endorsement, and her refusal to rescind that endorsement, is so far over the line that it cries for a response from the LGBT community at large. If enough people speak up on this issue, maybe she’ll actually listen.

Jess Durfee is a Democratic National Committee member, treasurer of the LGBT Caucus of the California Democratic Party, former chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party and a past-president of the San Diego Democrats for Equality.