Texas vote on gay
marriage grabs national spotlight
By Dave Montgomery,
Star-Telegram Washington Bureau
From the Fort Worth
StarTelegram.com on the Web, November 7, 2005
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 -- Texas’
vote Tuesday on same-sex marriage places the Lone Star State in the thick of a
social and political clash that has already engulfed at least a third of the
country and will undoubtedly intensify in next year’s congressional elections.
Texas is the only state with a proposed gay marriage ban on the ballot this
year, making it a national focal point in the battle between two polar-opposite
forces in American politics: Christian conservatives and the gay rights
movement. At least four states will confront the issue in 2006.
From the conservative perspective, the political appeal of outlawing same-sex
marriages became overwhelmingly apparent last year when constitutional bans like
the one proposed in Texas were adopted in all 11 states where they were on the
ballot, by margins reaching more than six-to-one.
The issue boosted Republican turnout, helped secure President Bush’s re-election
and contributed to the political demise of then-Senate Democratic Leader Tom
Daschle, D-S.D., who bucked political sentiments in his home state to fight a
proposed U.S. constitutional ban on gay marriages.
"If you think Social Security reform is the third rail of American politics, try
coming out for gay marriage,” said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and
Family Institute, a conservative public policy organization based in Washington.
"It’s a far more powerful issue.”
While conservatives push their agenda from the right, a broad coalition of
left-of-center groups are energized from the other direction in behalf of the
gay rights movement. Propelled by their 2003 triumph -- when a court
ruling made Massachusetts the first state to permit same-sex marriages -- gay
and lesbian groups are battling to open the door in other states through
lawsuits and legislative action.
In September, the California State Assembly became the first legislature to
allow gays and lesbians to marry, but Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
vetoed the measure.
A similar proposal is pending in the New York State Assembly, and courts in at
least six states are considering lawsuits to permit marriages between same-sex
couples.
Gay rights organizations are also united in a counteroffensive against the
state-by-state spread of bans on same-sex marriages.
In addition to the proposed constitutional amendment in Texas, voters in
Alabama, South Carolina, South Dakota and Tennessee are expected to decide on
the issue in 2006. Proposed constitutional and statutory bans are also
moving through legislatures in at least seven states.
In Texas, the proposed marriage amendment is the only high-profile issue on
Tuesday’s ballot and has attracted intense national interest from groups on both
sides of the issue.
The proposed amendment, aimed at fortifying the state’s 2003 Defense of Marriage
Act, states that marriage in Texas is solely the union between a man and woman
and prohibits same-sex marriages or civil unions, including those created in
other states.
Glen Maxey of Austin, an openly gay former legislator who heads the
anti-amendment forces in Texas, describes the gay marriage dispute as "the new
hot-button issue” and a "political tool” used by the Christian right to motivate
conservative voters. Many of those in the opposite camp would readily
agree.
Sixty-eight percent of the public opposes legalizing same-sex marriages,
compared with 28 percent in favor, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll last
spring.
Based on those findings, says David Barton, a Christian conservative leader from
Aledo, Democratic lawmakers would be well-advised to think twice before opposing
efforts to restrict gay and lesbian unions.
"Blue guys in red states will see themselves getting killed politically if they
vote against it,” says Barton, president and founder of WallBuilders, a national
organization describing itself as pro-family.
Barton and others cite Daschle as an example. He became the first Senate
leader in 52 years to lose his seat after leading an effort to defeat a proposed
U.S. constitutional ban on same sex marriages. Though other factors also
figured in his downfall, polls showed that three-quarters of his South Dakota
constituents opposed gay marriages.
Heavyweight conservative groups -- whose opposition to Supreme Court nominee
Harriet Miers effectively forced her to withdraw from consideration -- are also
flexing their muscles in the anti-gay marriage campaign.
James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based group that reaches up to 28
million people a week through TV and radio broadcasts, is assisting in the
amendment efforts in Texas and other states.
"Social conservatives have discovered this is an issue you can win on,” said
David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think
tank in Washington.
The state-by-state drive has, at least temporarily, supplanted the
more-publicized federal effort to ban gay marriages through an amendment to the
U.S. Constitution.
Despite support from President Bush, the proposed amendment died in the Senate
in July 2004, and efforts to resurrect it during the current session of Congress
are at best uncertain.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a leading supporter of the amendment last year,
acknowledges that the issue is now on Congress’ back burner, but he said the
Senate debate helped spark the "grass fire” behind state efforts against gay
marriages.
And Matthew Spalding, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said
he believes that the widening move across the states is building a national
consensus that will enable Congress to successfully revisit a U.S.
constitutional amendment, possibly after the 2006 election year.
As a result of the referendums last year, 18 of the 50 states now have
amendments banning gay marriages, and more than 25 states have statutes defining
marriage as a union between two people of the opposite sex.
While gay and lesbian leaders acknowledge the political power of the opposition,
they nevertheless take heart in their own progress over the last two years,
starting with the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2003 ruling in Lawrence v.
Texas, which struck down sodomy laws in Texas and other states.
The 6-3 ruling, which held that the government has no authority to regulate the
sexual behavior of "consenting adults acting in private,” ignited a spate of
suits and legislative proposals to permit marriages between gay and lesbian
couples.
The next big break came in 2004, when Massachusetts’ highest court ruled that
the state’s ban on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional, allowing local
officials to begin granting licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
Since then, more than 6,000 couples have married, but tenacious opponents are
attempting to muster 66,000 petition signatures to force a reluctant Legislature
to submit a constitutional ban to the voters by 2007.
"Emotions are raw, and it’s by no means over,” said Lisa Barstow, spokeswoman
for Masschusetts’ Coalition for Marriage. "People really feel robbed and
cheated about never having had a say on this.”
Gay and lesbian leaders in Massachusetts acknowledge that they still have a
fight on their hands but are buoyed by their success thus far.
"As far as we can tell, the sky hasn’t fallen,” said Marty Rouse, leader of a
group called Massequality.
"But for a small segment of society, life is much better.”
Dave Montgomery, (202) 383-6016
dmontgomery@krwashington.com
|
