The ruling Tuesday by California’s Supreme Court upholding a ban on same-sex marriages shows that, despite a year of successes for gay activists, the road toward full marriage rights remains difficult — particularly when voters are given a direct say.
The decisions in three states this year to legalize same-sex marriage, and the possibility that three others will soon follow suit, created a sense that the issue was gaining irreversible momentum and widespread acceptance, with many advocates making comparisons to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. But the California ruling served as a reminder that same-sex marriage remains deeply polarizing, and the movement is likely to see more reversals and setbacks as it tries to expand beyond the favorable terrain of the Northeast.
In a 6 to 1 ruling, the California court said voters spoke clearly, through last fall’s ballot initiative known as Proposition 8, in wanting to limit marriage to a man and a woman. At the same time, the court said that the marriages of the approximately 18,000 couples who wed before the ban was passed remain valid and that same-sex partners can still enjoy equal legal benefits through recognized civil unions.
Protests against the decision began almost immediately, and gay advocacy groups said they plan to put the issue on the California ballot again, perhaps as early as 2010.
The ruling leaves five states that allow same-sex marriages — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont and Iowa — and four of those are in New England. The other states on the verge of approving gay marriage or debating it — New Hampshire, New York and New Jersey — are all in the Northeast, making same-sex marriage appear increasingly to be a regional phenomenon rather than a national trend. The exception is Iowa, a heartland state with a long progressive tradition, where a state Supreme Court decision cleared the way for marriage rights.
The rest of the map looks far less hospitable to gay activists. About 30 states have constitutional amendments that define marriage as between a man and a woman. The South appears solidly against same-sex marriage. The Mountain West and the Plains states seem largely opposed, with New Mexico as a possible exception. In the Midwest, gay advocates have hopes in Illinois and Minnesota, but nowhere else. And on the West Coast, Washington shows a measure of promise.
“The classic pattern of civil rights advance in the United States is patchwork,” said Evan Wolfson, executive director of the gay rights group Freedom to Marry. “The gay civil rights movement is going to follow the classic pattern.”
The groups fighting same-sex marriage are looking at the same map and taking comfort.
“A majority of states are locked in now,” said Carrie Gordon Earll, senior director of issue analysis for Focus on the Family, which opposes gay marriage. “I think this is the way the map is going to be for a while.” Earll added that same-sex marriage advocates concentrated their efforts mainly in the Northeast because the region “tends to be the most liberal.”
Opponents of gay marriage say they have not conceded defeat, even in the states that have legalized it. In Maine, they hope to push a referendum to overturn the law passed early this month, and under the referendum rules, they can delay any such marriages until next year. In Iowa, they also hope for a referendum, although that process could take several years.
Of the states where the issue is in play, New Hampshire and New Jersey appear most likely to legalize gay marriage, advocates on both sides said.
Proponents say the movement is gaining strength nationwide, causing shifts in attitudes. They point to recent polls showing an upswing in public support for legal recognition of same-sex couples. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll showed for the first time more people in favor of legal marriage than opposed. And support for marriage of gay couples is significantly higher among younger adults — particularly those under age 30, nearly half of whom “strongly support” it — than it is among older Americans. Those numbers suggest that the trend toward greater acceptance may continue.
“I do think the momentum will continue,” said Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “I have no doubt that over time, more states will join in marriage equality. . . . There are simply more and more people across the country who know same-sex couples who are married, their kids go to school together, and life continues on.”
She and others said having a handful of states allowing same-sex marriage creates a critical mass that the rest of the country cannot ignore, if only because of the complex legal issues that are already being raised. A company in Iowa may want to transfer a gay couple to another state where their marriage would not be recognized, for instance.
In places where they do not think they can win outright, proponents said they intend to push for equal legal benefits, such as the recognition of same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
But opponents believe that momentum at the state level may have stalled, and they suspect that gay rights groups will shift their attention to the federal level. With a handful of victories this year, the opponents said, same-sex marriage advocates will push for Congress to overturn the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
“What happens after this is it shifts to the federal level,” said Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes gay marriage. The state-by-state battles, she said, “are steps in a national picture.” In pushing for a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, she said, proponents are “trying to clear the ground for having a Supreme Court decision on a constitutional right to gay marriage.”
Gallagher said she was not surprised by the legalization of same-sex marriage in several states this year. “I think they are pushing so hard in the blue states in the Northeast because they are the states most dominated by one party,” she said. Gay rights groups needed a handful of states with same-sex marriage, she said, to be able to make the case before the Supreme Court that cultural attitudes are shifting.
Gay advocates had hoped that if the California Supreme Court struck down Proposition 8, momentum would be clearly on their side. And having California and possibly New York approve same-sex marriage this year would have allowed activists to note that two of the most populous states had embraced marriage equality, creating a sense of inevitability.
“We’re deeply disappointed,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group based in Washington. But, he said, “it’s hard to think that five years from now we won’t have marriage equality” in the states where a majority of the American population lives.
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Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/26/AR2009052600363.html?hpid=topnews
