Aug 15, 2003  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

With a proposed constitutional amendment seeking to ban gay marriage looming in the background, leaders of at least 16 national and state gay civil rights groups are scheduled to meet in Washington on Sept. 8 to map strategies for opposing the amendment and advancing the cause of same-sex marriage.

The meeting, to be held at the offices of the Human Rights Campaign, follows a similar meeting held in New York City on July 21. Participants hailed that meeting as a first-of-its-kind “summit” of gay leaders waging a high-stakes marriage battle.

“It’s really less about a meeting and more about what we are doing to enlist non-gay people and to move public opinion,” said gay rights attorney Evan Wolfson, executive director of the New York-based gay advocacy group Freedom to Marry.

Evans and other gay leaders have vowed to go on the offensive in fighting the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which legal experts say would go beyond banning gay marriage. Some gay rights attorneys, including officials with the ACLU, warn that the constitutional amendment would overturn existing domestic partner laws and other statutes and policies benefiting same-sex couples, including Vermont’s civil unions law.

The amendment was introduced by Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.) and states: “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this constitution nor the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.”

Constitutional amendments must be approved by a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate and by three-fourths of the state legislatures to pass.

Amendment would revoke rights
“This is the first time, other than Prohibition, that a constitutional amendment would take away freedoms rather than add to or protect freedoms,” said Robin Tyler, a veteran lesbian activist from Los Angeles who last month co-founded the Web site www.DontAmend.com.

Tyler and D.C. gay activist John Aravosis, the other co-founder of the site, said the site asks visitors to sign a pledge that they will not vote for any public official who supports the anti-gay marriage amendment. The two said they would send copies of the pledges to members of Congress, governors, state representatives, mayors and “other elected officials who may have an influence on this vote.”

“I pledge not to vote for, or otherwise support, any politician of any political party who supports adding the Federal Marriage Amendment, or any similar amendment to define marriage, to the U.S. Constitution,” the pledge says.

As of earlier this week, 9,851 people had signed the pledge, according to information published on the site.

Robin Tyler, a lesbian activist in Los Angeles, started a Web site to rally opposition to a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriages. The Web site is www.DontAmend.com. (Photo by Edgar B. Anderson)

Tyler and Aravosis said they modeled the site after their StopDrLaura.com campaign, which orchestrated a boycott three years ago against a television program by Laura Schlessinger. Schlessinger, a radio talk show host who billed herself as a therapist, regularly denounced homosexuality as an illness.

The “Dr. Laura” television show, which sought to build on Schlessinger’s notoriety as a radio personality, was cancelled after the Web site and efforts by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation prompted dozens of advertisers to discontinue their sponsorship of the TV show. Television network officials acknowledged receiving a barrage of complaints about Schlessinger.

HRC, the nation’s largest gay political group, launched its own marriage related Web site in late July, www.millionformarriage.org. The HRC site calls on gays and their allies throughout the country to sign a petition published on the site, which states, “I DO: I support the right of every American to marry, including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender couples. I believe that marriage and other civil rights protections are essential to making all families safer and more secure.”

HRC says it hopes to obtain a million signers of the petition, and it plans to send copies to the nation’s lawmakers. As of earlier this week, 130,865 people had signed the petition, according to information on the site.

(For more information on DontAmend.com and millionformarriage.org, please see story on page 46.)

All-out fight
Those attending the gay “summit” in New York, and those expected to attend the D.C. meeting on Sept. 8, represent a diverse cross section of gay activists, participants said. Tyler, who ...