Opposition
The movement for full equality for all American families is succeeding in the face of an immense, well funded, aggressive opposition campaign that is not just opposed to marriage equality, but is also anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-civil-rights, anti-women's equality, and anti-separation of church and state.
As Americans grapple with the question of ending discrimination in marriage and acknowledging the needs of gay and lesbian committed couples and their kids, more and more people move in the direction of marriage equality. Many people wonder whether protections can be provided through a legal status other than marriage itself, imagining that some new mechanism such as "civil union" or "partnership" might suffice and also be accepted by the opposition.
Unfortunately, the answer is no. Organizations opposed to gay people's freedom to marry are also opposed to any other recognition of same-sex couples, no matter how minimal. These groups are anti-gay, and have been attacking LGBT rights of any kind for decades.
The anti-gay right-wing groups pursuing their own political and ideological agenda — groups such as Focus on the Family, Concerned Women of America, Family Research Council, the American Family Association, Liberty Counsel, and others — explicitly oppose civil unions and domestic partnership rights of any kind. They even work to deny lesbian and gay employees health insurance coverage for their life partners and kids, and are campaigning state by state to cement sweeping anti-gay discrimination not just into the law, but into the federal and state constitutions.
Some examples of their true anti-gay agenda, as reflected in the discriminatory laws and amendments they are pushing:
- "Any such Civil union, partnership contract or other arrangement entered into by persons of the same sex in another state or jurisdiction shall be void in all respects in Virginia and any contractual rights created thereby shall be void and unenforceable."
— "Affirmation of Marriage Act" (Virginia 2004) - "This state and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance or effect of marriage."
— "Defense of Marriage Act" (Ohio, 2004) - "...defines marriage to be between one man and one woman... prohibits giving the benefits of marriage to people who are not married."
— Ballot Question 711 (Oklahoma, 2004)
These sweeping measures make clear the real agenda of the anti-equality groups. They want same-sex couples to remain strangers under the law. They oppose laws that would protect someone from being fired or evicted simply for being lesbian or gay. In fact, most believe that consensual intimacy between two women or two men should be a crime.
From John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1869:
The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.
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Evan Wolfson directly addresses anti-gay and anti-family leaders in various debates. Listen and see his foolproof arguments draw support from every audience he debates in front of.
Once again, America is heading into an Election Day with another round of ballot-measure attacks on gay people. While a shifting mood in the electorate may give our cause a boost—and as the public begins to wise up to Karl Rove's gay-scapegoat-distraction plan—we are still likely to lose most, if not all, of the ballot measures aimed against us this year. We need to be ready to explain that loss to ourselves, our media and the public so the right-wing cannot spin these defeats into a false claim that our cause undermines candidates or other concerns we share.
Will Providing Marriage Rights to Same-Sex Couples Undermine Heterosexual Marriage? Evidence from Scandinavia and the Netherlands
Since the November 2003 court ruling allowing same-sex couples to marry in Massachusetts, a new debate on expanding the right to marry has exploded across the United States. While the debate involves many issues, one particularly controversial question is whether heterosexual people would change their marriage behavior if same-sex couples were given the same marital rights and obligations. The report finds that overall, there is no evidence that giving partnership rights to same-sex couples had any impact on heterosexual marriage in Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands.
