Gay marriage debate
intensifies
as conservatives get
organized
By GEOFF MULVIHILL,
AP from the Web, December 16, 2007
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. -- New
Jersey's well organized gay rights advocates are finding their adversaries are
also getting prepared for a coming legislative debate over gay marriage.
The National Organization for Marriage, established earlier this year in
Princeton, made itself known over the past few weeks with radio advertisements
urging people to call their lawmakers to tell them that allowing gay couples to
marry would undermine the institution.
The group set up in left-leaning New Jersey because it is one of a few states
where there's a realistic chance in the next few years that lawmakers will vote
to allow gay marriage. That makes it a battleground for the issues
nationally.
"If our side continues to increase in its activism, I think we can stop this in
2008," said Brian Brown, the executive director of the new organization.
The only state that currently lets gay couples marry is Massachusetts -- and
that was because of a ruling from the state's top court.
Last year, New Jersey's state Supreme Court declared that gay couples should
have the same legal rights as married couples. The Legislature responded
adopting a civil unions law, which allows those benefits -- but stops short of
allowing gay couples to wed.
But civil unions have received poor reviews from couples, many of whom say their
employers, and others, are not recognizing the rights they're supposed to bring
with them.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine has said he would sign a gay marriage bill into law, but
added that he did not want to deal with the issue before the 2008 presidential
election.
The opponents, who say the majority of people agree with them, are trying to get
mobilized in case it comes up before then.
Brown, who previously ran the Family Institute of Connecticut, says gay marriage
would affect people other than gay couples and their families.
For instance, he says allowing it would mean that children in public schools
would have to be taught that it's OK to be gay, that people who oppose gay
marriage could be seen as bigots and that religious organizations that teach
homosexuality is wrong could lose their tax-exempt status.
"Can't people care about their culture? Can't people care about the
effects it will have on society at large?" he asked. "It affects legal
structure, religious structures."
Brown's organization is also waging campaigns in other states, especially places
in the Northeast and West where gay marriage is most likely to become reality.
Brown's group believes that if gay marriage is allowed in multiple states, there
would be more lawsuits from gay couples married in one state and seeking to have
their unions recognized elsewhere. He seeks to head that off by blocking
gay marriage in states where it's most likely to be allowed.
Most states already have laws or constitutional amendments that prohibit the
unions.
His group and others opposed to gay marriage have sent e-mails to followers and
aired radio commercials for two weeks recently urging them to contact their
lawmakers to oppose gay marriage.
The district office of Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr., a Democrat and
one of the most powerful lawmakers in Trenton and an advocate of gay marriage,
has received more than 500 calls from opponents over the past few weeks.
"The radio ads have definitely gotten people's attention," Brown said.
(Abridged)
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