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Loading ...Gay bans embolden conservative religious groups
11.08.2008 3:38pm EST
(Los Angeles, California) Energized by a comeback win, conservative activists want to apply the same formula they used to outlaw same-sex marriage in California to prevent other states from recognizing gay unions and President-elect Barack Obama from expanding the rights of gays and lesbians.
Leaders of the successful Proposition 8 campaign say an unusual coalition of evangelical Christians, Mormons and Roman Catholics built a majority at the polls Tuesday by harnessing the organizational muscle of churches to a mainstream message about what school children might be taught about gay relationships if the ban failed.Same-sex marriage bans also won in Arizona and Florida. But in putting together the California victory, the coalition overcame opposition from the state’s political establishment and assumptions about how voters in the famously tolerant state would respond to taking away the rights the state’s highest court granted this spring.
“Everyone told me it could not be done, people do not care about this enough, you will be overwhelmed and you will lose,” said Maggie Gallagher, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, a New Jersey group that provided seed money early this year to qualify the measure for the ballot.
“This is an issue people care about when they understand what is at stake and we mount a vigorous and visible defense of marriage,” Gallagher said.
Same-sex couples are expected to start marrying next week in Connecticut, the third state after Massachusetts and California where courts have held it was unconstitutional to bar same-sex couples from marrying.
Unlike California, Connecticut does not have an initiative process that would allow voters to override the judicial decision there. So Gallagher said anti-gay marriage groups plan to focus next on New Jersey and New York, where the state legislatures are being lobbied to pass laws legalizing same-sex marriage.
The plan is to mobilize the same religious factions that joined forces in California to deter lawmakers from “taking on this divisive social issue while we are in the middle of a huge financial crisis,” Gallagher said.
Campaign operatives attribute their success to the churches, which served as voter registration centers, phone banks and volunteer recruitment hubs.
Religious institutions also gave Proposition 8’s sponsors an avenue to a range of ethnic voters, including many Democrats, said Mat Staver, who heads the Florida-based Christian legal group Liberty Counsel.
Catholic and evangelical Hispanics and African-American Baptists stood alongside conservative white evangelicals in arguing for traditional marriage. Exit polls showed 70 percent of blacks supported the ban, a far higher percentage than any other race.
“This is an issue that … transcends political ideology, religious affiliations, races and time and history,” said Staver. “It brings people together who ordinarily wouldn’t be sitting at the same table together.”
Gay-right activists attribute their loss in California in large part to overconfidence among Proposition 8 opponents. Although polls showed the measure far behind in mid-September, the Yes-on-8 campaign was raising far more money than its opponents.
“There was a lot of complacency. People didn’t believe it could have been this close, so we had to scramble to raise money.” said Yvette Martinez, political director for Equality for All, the coalition of gay, civil rights and liberal religious groups formed to fight the initiative.
Martinez also blamed a Yes-on-8 TV ad featuring a little girl telling her mother she had learned in school that she could grow up to marry a princess. Spanish-language ads were released on the same theme.
Proposition 8 says nothing about education, but gay-marriage opponents say allowing same-sex weddings would have affected what California public-school students are taught. Gay-rights groups disputed that, noting that the schools already are required to teach tolerance of gays and lesbians.
“Those lies penetrated,” said Martinez. “People believed that we were going to force gay marriage into the classroom, and there is no getting around people wanting to protect their children and to make decisions for their own family.”
Perhaps the most crucial faith-based ingredient of the California campaign was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Mormon church was invited into the coalition by San Francisco’s Roman Catholic Archbishop George Neiderauer, who previously spent 11 years as bishop of the Catholic diocese of Utah.
Mormons make up less than 2 percent of the California population with a religious preference, but it is widely believed that church members around the country were responsible for a major share of the more than $36 million raised to pass the gay marriage ban.
Gay-marriage opponents say the bipartisan, multiracial alliance that helped Proposition 8 pass could be instrumental in fighting any steps Obama takes as president to expand the rights of gays and lesbians.
“Those can be activated and pressure can be put on senators and congressional leaders who are not as left-leaning as Barack Obama to not follow his agenda,” Staver said.
During his campaign for the White House, Obama pledged to work for repeal of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act, which prevents the federal government from affording Social Security and other benefits to same-sex couples. He also vowed to reverse the Defense Department policy that prevents openly gay people from serving in the military.
Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said she isn’t worried the Proposition 8 campaign has produced a new political juggernaut, noting that the religious denominations that worked together in California have deep theological and spiritual differences.
Kendell, who was raised Mormon, said she was astonished to see black pastors working alongside members of a religion that did not allow blacks to serve as priests until she was in high school.
“Any time a coalition is formed for the expediency of one issue, it is very hard to hold it together,” Kendell said.
I am sorry that the churchs that have involved themselves in forcing their beliefs upon others…have done so. I am afraid that most of them have missed the point. With over 50% of marriages (heterosexual) on the rocks in America, wife beating and child molestation at a peak within fundamentalist regions of the USA and most religious zealots worrying more about what everyone else is doing, than what they themselves are doing… the whole point of ‘love God with all your heart, mind and strength…and your neighbor as yourself’ is sorely left out of all faith bases organizations. Jesus DID NOT teach what any of these folks are espousing; same sex blessings are on record as being performed in churches whilst straight marriages were still a matter of ‘contractual selling of the daughter to the husband’. I think a lot of folks really need to go back to their history of Christianity and get some facts straight. As for the Mormons…it is only of late that they have even recognized African American people as ‘people of God’…I don’t think they have too much to brag about…polygamy, wife abuse, discrimination and religious dogmas that still exclude women in so many ways. I think people need to wake up and start to consider what they REALLY believe and stop accepting what ‘others say they should believe’ as what they think they believe. Imagine what America would be like if church folks (and I speak of fundamentalists of any and all denominations)actually began to think and feel for themselves!
The bottom line is this: fundamentalist Christians are no different than fundamentlist Muslims or any other religious faction that practises zealotry and theocracy. Jesus tried to get us on the right track, Buddha tried, Mohammed tried, Good Lord so did Confucious, and a great many Gurus like Ghandi…and even as recent as Martin Luther King Jr. And nothing so far has worked because the zealots end up getting the power and money and the compassionate ones so often stand back and let them. And so it goes round and round. Banning Same Sex Marriage…what is so terrifying about Same Sex Marriage. Could it be that the GLBT community might succeed at it to a greater degree because they have been denied it for so long? So they treasure it more? Hmmmm I often have thought that perhaps we ought to sell ‘licences to procreate’ and ‘licences of domestic partnership’ and leave it at that. Because that really is the only difference in these ‘marriage licences’…which are really just contracts…and that is how they started out and it is STILL what they are. Gay marriage is not going to cause any harm to the straight community…because they cause themselves enough. I think that the issue is simple…give all people the right to domestic rights and responsibilities. If they have citizenship, vote and pay taxes..then all people should be equal, period. If we allow religious zealots to control what is law and what isn’t then we are no better than the brutality exibited in the Zealous Islamic States (which are no more a true example of true Islam than our zealots are true examples of Christianity. Mohammed nor Jesus would approve of the heinous acts of prejudice and hatred that we are perpetrating here in America and the rest of the world. Thank you
If you are concerned about mixing religion and politics, I suggest you to visit a websites of “Freedom From Religion Foundation” and “Americans United for Separation of Church and State” which protecting the constitutional principle of the separation of state and church. These organizations are wonderful to prevent mixing state and church and needs your help to keep them stronger. Their website addresses are http://ffrf.org/ and http://www.au.org . For many years, I strongly believe about separation of state and church to respect each individual with its culture and religion background.
shepherdsguide.com has a listing of xtian businesses by city,state. Their churches voted with their bucks, vote with yours. Take in a receipt of what you bought from one of their competitors.
These friggin’ halfwits in the catholic and mormon churches MUST be brought to justice! IMMEDIATELY! How can these nutjobs be running rampant like some middle east moslem yoyos!! Can anyone here tell me how to get more involved in the movement to have their tax exempt status removed? I DID sign the online petition and would now like to become MUCH more involved in this movement. Thanks.
Let’s tax the fuck out of these nasty churches. Who do they think they are kidding? They are businesses — they are in the business of ideas (mostly bad ideas). TAX THE FUCKERS!
I love how it’s divisive because they make it divisive, but that’s somehow a reason to ignore the issue.
The ’60s and ’70s were not without other issues either.
How funny. Just the other day, Catholic and Mormon denominations issued statements saying that they only want to protect marriage, and that they have no problem with gays and lesbians having all their other basic rights.
Yet now they want to band together to deny us any equal protection under the law that will be ushered in under the Obama administration.
It would seem that, in the eyes of these two churches, the only right we’re entitled to is the right to stay in the closet.
I sincerely doubt there’s a single politician within the Republic who has the balls, real or metaphorical to suggest removing tax exempt status for ANY “church” let alone push for it.
And to expect Obama to say or do anything right now just isn’t realistic. He’s not even in the Oval Office yet and has FAR too much on his plate at present. Even then, it’ll be the economy and two ongoing wars that is going to take up the bulk of his time.
Most Americans aren’t going to be wanting him to focus on a “small” issue like Prop 8’s fallout and how it’s “win” will influence the anti-gay forces elsewhere.
Nope, I’m afraid this sits solidly on our shoulders and it’ll be us that has to send the letters, sign the petitions, and yeah, take to the streets as necessary.
Are we all capable and willing though to not only turn up the heat, but keep it turned up? Ya gotta be in this for the long haul and not just for the quick fix.
Do what you can, do what you need to, small, large, just do. We have to get over the petty differences and see the BIG picture. Think large and start where you can.
We must not back down anymore. Be bold, and brave and face the fear, theirs AND yours. Stand up and be counted. I’ll be there with you, among my brothers and sisters.
Shaun said: “Yet now they [Catholic and Mormon denominations] want to band together to deny us any equal protection under the law that will be ushered in under the Obama administration.”
In spite of how many comments on this site try to argue that Obama will do nothing for gays, it’s obvious that the religious right believes otherwise and is preparing for all out combat.
Gays should take note and prepare in advance to counter the threat. Let’s not forget that the religious right has formidable resources at its disposal and can easily overwhelm and intimidate the administration and the Congress into backing away from gay rights.
As we remember that it’s 70 years since Kritallnacht, I wonder how much progress we have made an a minority?? I see gays & lesbians the victims of Kristallnacht 2008!!
Most of the Canadians and Europeans who have caught wind of this Proposition 8 fiasco are probably laughing. Not at the LGBT community, but at the “Puritans” who insist on making this the issue that will determine the fate of the Universe.
Please…this is the death of the moral majority all over again. Think about it: The religious right got a bunch of other religious ignoramuses to get together and hate on the gays. Sounds like a dying gasp to me. There’s nothing ‘emboldening’ about it. Especially when the target of your hate stands up and starts fighting back. Which seems to have started in West Hollywood and the Castro, moved to all of CA and is not supposed to go national next week. The religious right and the crazed evangelicals are going to find themselves on the dung heap of history soon enough. Thanks to the heavy lifting of some angry gays and lesbians. The only people ‘emboldened’ by prop 8’s hateful and manipulative passage was gays and lesbians in CA, nation-wide and hopefully soon, world-wide.
KZ said: “Most of the Canadians and Europeans who have caught wind of this Proposition 8 fiasco are probably laughing…at the ‘Puritans’ who insist on making this the issue that will determine the fate of the Universe.”
Probably so. But they will also probably sober up when they remember that those same “Puritans” brought us 8 years of the George W fiasco that seriously endangered the world and the world economy, and that the same religious right voted to continue the fiasco under a McCain/Palin administration.
Anyone who wonders what drives the fanaticism and the irrational attacks against gay marriage will find that the following online book – which is a free download – explains a lot.
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/ – The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba
Michael said: “Please…this is the death of the moral majority all over again.”
I can’t count the number of articles I’ve read in the mainstream press over the last several of decades that predicted exactly the same thing and were then proven wrong by a resurgent and victorious religious right. Gays underestimate the religious right at their own peril. This time, let’s prepare in advance for a full scale battle.
I read alot of mainstream press and I haven’t heard much comparison of the current evangelical movement going the same route as the moral majority (but then again I was just an infant back then…)
With that said: True enough. Anything that even resembles complacency should get a slap-down. After all, complacency is sort of what got us where we are. So with that said: Everyone needs to go out and kick some mormon ass. Am I the only one who remembers the pink panthers from greenwich village in the late 80’s? Seriously: Nothing was more fun than turning the tables on some dumb homophobe’s ass when he thought he was going to find a queen bash in the village. We need some of that…the figurative version. Not literal…