More on the hangover

We've now racked up an 2-32 record in our attempt to push gay marriage through the courts. Shouldn't we try something different? Two big issues: (1) We've been pushing for court remedies without preparing the hearts and minds of the general populace. (2) We claim that we're entitled to marriage and anyone who disagrees with us is a bigot. Now about half of those who oppose us really are bigots, but the rest need to be educated about marriage, not bludgeoned over discrimination. Yes, there are similarities with black rights, but Martin Luther King was a persuader, not a litigator. One of the 55 commenters to this pose replied that some of the advances blacks won was through litigation. Others disputed this basic premise or complained some more about how poorly the gay side of the campaign was run.



Here's another report on protests in Calif. The item of interest is a letter written to the editor of the Salt Lake City Tribune and accepted for publication:

Dear editor,
I find it tragic and more than sad that after the Mormon church declared an outright vicious war against loving, committed same sex couples, utilizing hate, lies and false scare tactics, they now want people to treat them with "civility, with respect and with love." Mormons should practice the behavior that they want to receive in return. As I was taught, live the "golden rule". Obviously, they did not learn the same lesson. Mormons exhibited behavior 180 degrees apart from civility, respect and love. They deserve none of the three.
There are consequences to vile actions as exhibited recently by Mormon and other supporters of Proposition 8 and I am afraid that the Mormons are about to find out what some of these are.

On the pragmatic side, what's next? Obama has stressed repeal of DOMA, but he doesn't seem to be that much of a stalwart gay supporter and the passage of 3 marriage amendments may convince him (or lots of congresscritters) to go slowly. DOMA has two parts: tell states they don't have to honor gay marriages from other states and banning gay marriage recognition at the federal level. With 30 states with constitutional bans, will a repeal of the first part pass? Very unlikely. Repealing the second part may convince a few more New England states to offer marriage (or at least convert domestic partnerships to marriage), but doesn't do much in 30 states. Perhaps the feds can extend marriage benefits to DPs or even create a federal DP system (while leaving DOMA intact). Alas, this might delay full marriage even more. The most likely scenario would be to grant marriage-like benefits on a piecemeal basis -- partner immigration, social security benefits -- which could affect gays no matter which state they live in. But we're still second class citizens.


More likely we'll see movement on Employment Non-Discrimination, Hate Crimes laws, repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, rescinding the HIV travel ban (Bush signed it into law, then ignored it), reality based sex education.


As for overturning Calif.'s ban, here's a proposal: It takes less than 700,000 signatures to get a proposal on the ballot. With good voter lists from gay organizations getting these signatures should cost less than a million. So, on every statewide election get a repeal of the ban on the ballot. Keep at it until it passes. Spend minimally to defend it, though don't confine spending to the campaign season and put the anti-gay forces on the defensive. Once people deny gays for the 5th or 10th time they just might change their vote. And even then you've spent less than the $35 million gays spent defending this one. And it might drain our opponents wallets. Yes, there are problems: Minimal defense may mean lopsided votes, which could get discouraging. Voters may get irritated at repeatedly voting on the same thing. And we might polarize the debate. Another idea is to alternate the gay marriage issue with such things as taxing churches that get involved in politics or stressing the separation of church and state. The end of this link has the story by Regan DuCasse who was upset with a black bishop who said, "now that the people have voted twice, these gay people in the streets need to suck it up." That prompted a lengthy phone call to the bishop, who couldn't see his hypocrisy.


The New York governor supports gay marriage. The state Assembly approved it by a wide margin. The state senate, controlled by the GOP refused to vote on it. But the senate now has a Democrat majority. Start celebrating? Um… Four Dem senators are backing GOP leadership because they are social conservatives and don't want to give gay marriage an opening.