Aug 03, 2006  |  By: ELIZABETH A. PERRY  | COMMENTS     

Supporters of same-sex marriage are taking it on the chin this summer.

Courts in four states have ruled against gay marriage in recent weeks, dealing a series of setbacks to pro-marriage advocates.

Now the push for marriage equality faces a new challenge, after a group of activists publicly questioned the priorities of gay marriage supporters, revealing a schism among gay rights advocates.

Some 250 authors, activists, intellectuals and celebrities — gay and straight — released a statement last week, “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision for All Our Families and Relationships.”

“Marriage is not the only worthy form of family or relationship, and it should not be legally and economically privileged above all others,” the statement reads. “The struggle for marriage rights should be part of a larger effort to strengthen the stability and security of diverse households and families.”

Those who signed on to the statement advocate separation of church and state in all matters, including regulation and recognition of relationships, households and families and legal recognition for a wide range of relationships, households and families regardless of kinship or conjugal status. They support access to government support programs for all, including health care, housing, Social Security and pension plans, disaster recovery assistance, and unemployment and welfare insurance. The group also supports freedom from state regulation of the sexual lives, gender choices, identities and expression of all people.

The statement was authored by a group of approximately 20 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizers, scholars, lawyers and writers who came together for a weekend retreat last April to discuss marriage politics, gay marriage and how to redirect the movement.

Joseph DeFilippis, executive director of Queers for Economic Justice and one of the statement’s authors, said the statement is supportive of gay marriage and that anti-gay ballot initiatives should be fought, but they disagree with pro-gay marriage groups that advocate that legal protections and benefits should come through marriage.

“Those benefits and protections should not be tied to marriage,” he said. “Everyone deserves those benefits by virtue of being a human being, not just because you are in a relationship. If marriage was something you did in a church with your family and religious community as a personal celebration, and the issue of benefits and legal protection were separate, then more people would benefit.”

No ‘special rights’
for married couples

Nancy Polikoff, professor of law at the Washington College of Law at American University in D.C., was one of the authors and signers of the “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage” document. She has litigated cases about lesbian and gay families and written about the topic for 30 years and said that heterosexual married couples reap the advantages of legal rights, including health coverage, hospital visitation, medical decision making, pension and survivor benefits, that are not available to other types of families.

“The solution that ‘Beyond Same-Sex Marriage’ proposes is to change our laws and policies so that marriage does not receive ‘special rights’ denied other family forms,” she said.

Polikoff said Americans should look to other Western countries like Canada as an alternative model for marriage in the United States.

“In Canada, the law virtually equalized the status of married and unmarried couples,” she said. “Then they allowed same-sex couples to marry. If you’re a same-sex couple in Canada you can choose to marry because of emotional or spiritual reasons, but you don’t have to marry for legal reasons. [In the United States] the argument for legal marriage is about depriving us of legal benefits, but other countries know how to fairly treat couples under the law regardless of whether or not they are married.”

Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, a group working for full marriage rights for gays and lesbians, disagrees with the need for a marriage alternative. He said the Canada model of marriage would not work for the United States.

“The United States is not Canada,” he said. “There are legal and cultural differences we have to deal with in our work here. We have much more of an organized right-wing infrastructure that opposes gay people’s equality, as well as other things we care about. The battle is much harder here. Canada also has universal health care that the U.S. doesn’t, but should have.”

Other gay activists signing on to the “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage” statement include Amber Hollibaugh of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force; law professor Chai Feldblum; queer studies professor Michael Bronski, Mandy Carter of the National Black Justice Coalition; Wendy Curry of BiNet USA; and Kathleen DeBold of the Mautner Project.

The Task Force has worked aggressively ...