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| Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), who is facing a tough re-election campaign, has put her work on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage on hold. She said she intends to wait and see what the voters and the courts think about the amendment before taking further action. (Photo by AP) |
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: EARTHA JANE MELZE
COMMENTS
 
The latest Pew Research Center poll on views about same-sex marriage shows 36 percent of Americans favor allowing same-sex couples to marry and 53 percent support legal recognition that would offer gay couples many of the same rights and responsibilities as married straight couples.
The numbers represent a 4 percent increase among those who support full marriage rights for gays and a 6 percent jump among those who back some form of legal recognition of same-sex relationships since the last poll was taken in December 2004.
In a statement celebrating the poll, Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, a group working for marriage equality, said that a year of legal marriage in Massachusetts has demonstrated to many that ending marriage discrimination helps gays and harms no one.
“This is exactly what the right wing is afraid of,” Wolfson said. “If we stick with the conversation and persist in engaging the non-gay public on marriage equality, the public will move to fairness.”
In a sign that support for a federal marriage amendment may no longer be seen as politically advantageous, Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), told the Associated Press last week that she is putting her work on the marriage amendment on hold as states and the courts battle over the issue at the state level.
Musgrave, who is beginning a re-election campaign, was the original sponsor of the marriage amendment in the House last year. The AP reported that the GOP has rated Musgrave as one of the 10 most vulnerable Republicans in the country. Musgrave said that gay rights activists and other groups spent $2.5 million on television advertising attacking her during her last campaign.
In California, the issue of marriage equality is being dealt with in the courts, in the legislature and by ballot initiative.
Earlier this month the California Supreme Court decided not to hear an expedited appeal of a lower court ruling that the state’s marriage law is unconstitutional because it discriminates against gays. The appeal will instead make its way through the appellate court and could much longer to resolve.
Geoffrey Kors, executive director of Equality California, a statewide gay civil rights organization, said that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some legislators had stated that they would wait to see how the courts handled the issue before taking a position on marriage equality.
The Religious Freedom & Civil Marriage Protection Act, which would have legalized same-sex marriage was defeated in the Assembly earlier this year. Last week the bill was introduced in the Senate for the first time, and Kors said he believes it has a strong chance of passing.
“Most of the Assembly members who have strong records on gay issues but did not vote on the bill last time around are running for Senate,” Kors said.
“If they see that their colleagues in the Senate have passed the bill, this could give them comfort and build momentum toward passage of the bill.”
“In races where this has become an issue, every candidate who supported marriage equality won,” Kors said. “There is nothing the public dislikes more than people who don’t take positions.”
Ballot initiatives are pending on two amendments to repeal domestic partner benefits and ban same-sex marriage. A vote on one or both of these amendments could take place as soon as June of 2006.
In Oregon, bills that would have established civil unions and prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation, died earlier this month.
Though supporters of the bills were certain there were enough votes for passage, House Speaker Karen Minnis ( R-Wood Village) prevented the measure from coming to a vote through a series of unusual parliamentary moves.
Because the Oregon Legislature meets every other year, the earliest the measure could be reintroduced is 2007.
“I think there are a number of people who are disgusted and angered and outraged that one person can interfere with democratic process in such a way,” said Rebekah Kassell, of Basic Rights Oregon, which was the major organizer of the campaign for the legislation.
“The community in general is encouraged by the fact that this was the most massive lobbying effort in our history and there was a level of seriousness, visibility and discussion around the issues that has never taken place before,” Kassell said.
The effort to enact civil unions and anti-discrimination legislation in Oregon was a response to last year’s passage of an amendment banning gay marriage rights. The marriage amendment is also being challenged in ...
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