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Loading ...Gay marriage momentum stalls in liberal NY, NJ
11.25.2009 2:30pm EST
(Mount Laurel, NJ) The state-to-state march to legalize gay marriage across the left-leaning Northeast has lost more momentum since a major setback three weeks ago at the ballot box in Maine.
Since then, legislatures in New York and New Jersey have failed to schedule long-expected votes on bills to recognize the unions in those states.“If they are unable to pass gay marriage in New York and New Jersey, combined with the loss in Maine, it will confirm that gay marriage is not the inevitable wave of the future,” said Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, which mobilizes social conservatives to fight against same-sex marriage.
Gay rights activists insist that’s not the case and say hope is still alive.
“In any civil rights struggle there are going to be periods of creeping and periods of leaping,” said Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry.
This decade has had some of both across the country. The most significant was the leap the issue made from abstraction to reality in 2003 when the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that gay couples had the right to get married.
The fallout was widespread: Thirty states have amended their constitutions to specify that marriage can only be between a man and a woman; all but three of those amendments were adopted since the Massachusetts ruling.
But in the Northeast, progress has been much smoother for gay rights advocates.
The Connecticut Supreme Court recognized the marriages last year.
Lawmakers in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine all adopted gay marriage bills this year. The city council in Washington, D.C., is expected to legalize gay marriage next month.
The only state outside the Northeast that recognizes same-sex marriage is Iowa, where the state Supreme Court mandated it earlier this year. California briefly issued licenses before voters passed a law stopping the practice.
Last month, voters in Maine – the only Northeastern state where the issue has been put on a ballot – overturned a gay-marriage law before it could take effect.
New York and New Jersey appeared to be the next logical battlegrounds.
New York is seen as relatively gay-friendly. Court rulings, including one from the state’s highest court just last week, have found that gay couples married outside New York are entitled to some government benefits.
New Jersey offers the legal rights afforded to married couples but calls them civil unions, not marriages. Recent public opinion polls have shown narrow support for allowing gay marriage in the state. However, a new poll out Wednesday from Quinnipiac University finds voters oppose gay marriage by a 49 to 46 margin, with a sampling error margin of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Both states have Democratic governors eager to sign bills legalizing gay marriage.
But now it’s not clear whether bills will ever get to their desks. There could be national implications if they don’t.
“If this goes down in both states, it will be seen by both sides as building on the momentum that opponents sort of got coming out of Maine,” said David Masci, a senior researcher at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
There’s a sense of urgency in New Jersey. This month, voters elected Republican Chris Christie over incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine. Corzine has said he’ll sign a gay marriage bill. Christie promised a veto.
As a result, activists are pushing hard to get a bill passed before Christie takes office on Jan. 19.
But since the election, key Democrats have said they don’t intend to put the bill up for a vote unless they know it will pass. And so far, they say, that’s not assured. On Monday, when lawmakers met for the first time since the election, the issue was in legislative limbo – not scheduled but not declared dead either.
Len Deo, president of the conservative New Jersey Family Policy Council, said he believes some lawmakers who were undecided before the election would now vote against a gay marriage bill.
“Observing what happened in the general election, I think that took the wind out of the sails of the same-sex marriage movement,” he said.
Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, the state’s main gay rights organization, acknowledges his side has lost some support in Trenton.
“Was marriage equality in the bag before the election? Nothing in politics is ever in the bag, but we were looking pretty damn excellent,” Goldstein said.
Despite the uncertainty, Goldstein says he still expects a vote this year. “Now, we’re looking pretty damn good,” he said.
The situation in New York is similar to New Jersey’s, with no clear sign of whether there will be a vote in the state Senate. The state Assembly has already adopted a marriage bill.
Some conservatives say the special election this fall in New York’s rural 23rd Congressional District may have sent a signal to politicians. A conservative third-party candidate who opposes same-sex marriage forced the more moderate Republican – who supported same-sex marriage – to suspend her campaign. Democrat Bill Owens ultimately won the race.
Dan Poust, of the New York State Catholic Conference, said that pokes a hole in the notion that gay marriage is headed for passage this year. “Clearly that was premature, because the people are not there,” he said.
New York Sen. Thomas Duane, an openly gay lawmaker sponsoring the same-sex marriage bill, said Tuesday he still expects the state Senate to vote on and pass a bill by the end of the year.
Social conservatives have long told politicians they could lose their seats if they support gay marriage. But Kenneth Sherrill, a political scientist at Hunter College in New York, said politics have grown more complicated as same-sex marriage has become a major issue.
“It’s not as if politicians only have to fear an enraged group of people opposed to gay rights,” he said. “Politicians also have to be concerned about angry supporters of gay rights.”
The conservatives say a lot of things. What they don’t say anything about is the fact that opposition to same-sex marriage has *consistently* fallen every year for the last decade and a half by about 2% each year.
They also don’t say anything about the fact that people under the age of 30 support the legalization of same-sex marriage in huge majorities, and it stands to reason that as the older people that oppose it die, the younger generation will become the government.
The conservatives will take any available opportunity to claim victory, but Gallagher et al know that in the end they will lose. NOM represents a group that is, literally, dying, and will only continue to be able to influence politics for another decade or so.
I don’t normally “hate” people but in the smug and condescending Maggie Gallagher I am more than willing to make an exception.
I agree with you 100% Will. I wish someone would thow a pale of water on that Witch and she would melt into the pavement!
Tom Happily married in Long Beach
(one of the 18,000)
The GOP is still all too willing to engage in a witch hunt against gays, even in states (like New Jersey) where the GOP hasn’t presented itself as the morality police (to the extent they do in states like South Carolina). The Dems have convinced themselves that they can ignore gays, play games with gay civil rights, and just like Lucy does with the football, pull away that support at the last minute.
Sure, the conservatives are showing some resurgency, not least because of a feckless President and an equally insipid Congress which lacks any backbone. We already know that good Baptists aren’t supposed to go to Disney theme parks. What hasn’t been tested yet is the possibility that gays start telling the Dems to go to hell. Our votes are private. When we run for office, many local seats are officially nonpartisan, so there need be no declaration of party affiliation. Just because there are two major political parties, and neither one is really going to do anything for us, that doesn’t mean that we have any interest in aligning with either one. What would happen if gays said “NO” to the Dems? No more money. No more appearing in their candidates’ photo ops. No more worrying about being invited to super-duper insider events in DC. It’s hard to see which of the three is really the worst: the GOP and its parade of racists, sexists, wannabe-theocrats, and know-nothings; Democrats, who couldn’t present a united front even if it was so everybody could get a free beachfront house in Maui; or the gay organizations, whose leadership is SO easily bribed with shiny invitations and the (false) promise of becoming an “insider”–read Lucy with the football redux.
They can all stand there with a tin cup. Maybe all three are more problem than they are solution. Our nauseating obligation as Americans is to support a President who does nothing for us, solely to avert a Weimar-like takeover by the hard right. Maybe we shouldn’t support him. In a way, four years of McCain would’ve probably devastated the country, but at least we’d have a common enemy. At least there’d be no pretense that we would see anything resembling equality. And if any of the gay groups told us, like Miss Marsha from Romper Room, to just be patient and wait our turn, we would’ve shut them up by cutting off their cash flow. It’s not bitterness to say nobody’s gonna help us. The day we see full equality under the law has been needlessly delayed, and I have to admit I enjoy the thorough shredding that Obama and the GOP will both take in history. Neither one cares about civil rights for all Americans, and–here it comes, I’m gonna say it–yes, it is more hypocritical and more calculating and more offensive when a member of a minority picks and chooses on civil rights, because that is a person who understands from their own experience what it’s like.
We’ve reached a point where we can’t trust either major party. Not at the Federal level, not really at the state level. Our own groups have turned on us too. So maybe we need to band together as a special interest in our own right. We give our money to whoever advances us, but we stop giving our votes as proof of our loyalty. Time we started to take a more mercenary approach. Once we get there, I think the Democratic Party might have to do more soul-searching than the GOP, because the Dems are the ones who have made the conscious choice NOT to stand up for us.
Drewski, totally agree. I’ve already stopped donating to the DNC and other, no more support for HRC either. We need to make sure exactly who supports us in the democratic party and vote only for those who do with a caution that failure to deliver will result in no votes that they have taken for granted for far too long. I was under no illusion about bigot Obama who believes in segregation for LGBT people and does not think we deserve FULL EQUALITY. Civil Unions are NOT full equality. How would he like it if certain straight minorities could only have a civil union? I’m tired of crumbs from the table, we should demand a full plate and place, nothing less, or else, face the consequences. The democratic can’t win an election without us, we need to use that power more forcefully and cut out the political correctness altogether. Time to get tough with them.
I feel that NY an NJ should wait a few more years before voting on legislation for marriage equality. Reality has shown that acceptance comes over time and the votes against us come when it happens too fast. I say both NY and NJ should step back, educate their public and then pass legislation.
Democrats love to say they support equality, but when it comes to a vote, they failed us, just like the GOP. I hope newer gay activists have the know-how to use pressure instead of just letter-writing campaigns, and lose the illusion that what a democrat says they will do and what they do do, is not the same thing.
I’m wondering what people really expected. There just aren’t many states left to grab for in 2009… NJ and NY are still reachable, but it’s going to take an effort to make it come to a vote. Besides RI and perhaps Hawai’i, I don’t see any other states as possible before 2012. We’ve pretty much won the court cases we can win at the state level.
I see two strategies coming from this: a) focuse on winning popular votes in liberal states in 2012, or b) focusing on a federal lawsuit to make same-sex marriage legal across the country.
Or both. But we HAVE to focus on 2012 if it comes to ballot initiatives.
The gallagher woman – to me she is a female satan in the flesh. Probably a self hating lesbian created by the church.
Look at gay marriage and civil unions from the following perspective. In western europe, almost every nation recognizes gay relationships in one form or another. Exceptions are Ireland – CU’s expected soon, Portugal – the president is going to drive the issue, Italy and Greece – home to churches of hatred.
Then in Eastern Europe, there is Chech Republic, Hungary, and Austria who recognize gay unions. Add Israel, Repub of South Africa, Nepal, a special case in Japan, NZ, and parts of Australia.
And in very Catholic South America, Uraguay, columbia, and parts of mexico, Argentina and Brazil.
Also of course, Canada.
The battle is in the USA, because when the churches lose in the USA, and people come to realize that gay people are good people, just like anyone else, the churches of hate will be exposed, and ultimately become like the Sabre toothed tigers – vicious beasts now extinct.
And the world will breath a sigh of relief, and God will be so busy expanding hell for those who denigrate and deny part of His creation for their own selfish ends.
It’s probably going to take longer, and we need to have a longer term expectation, but the prize will be well worth it.
“Politicians could lose their seats for supporting same sex marriage”
Not what happened in MA, Note one lost their seat. But several of the bigots did lose their seat.
when the gay community really gets off its ass, and 10 million gay people show up at rallies, the state house etc, the politicians will really take notice. Because the bigots really are minority, except in the hate fiolled south, still fighting for segregation, only now it is of gays, not blacks.
We never finished the civil war – that is the problem down there.
And someday, religion will be simple – “we are only here for a short time. Besides our families, we must help those denigrated amd their humanity denied, usually in the name of God.”
And in the end, if there is a God, we will be honored. If there isn’t a God and hereafter, we’ll know on our deathbed that we did the right thing, and that will be reward enough.
Note that the Episcopal, ELCA. MCC, UCC, UU, Quakers, Jewish Reform/Conservative, etc all support gay people, including pastors in relationships. The PresbyterianUSA group got close this year, and next time will most likely support the relationship deal, they do have openly gay pastors.
There are movements in the United Methodists, American (not southern) Baptists, Disciples of Christ, etc. Sure the Catholic church has DignityUSA, but those folks should get smart and have a national day of condemnation when they all leave the church at once.
soon it’s going to be only the Southern Baptists of Slavery days, the catholic monster of Hitler, etc, and lots of the southern Baptists like independent christian churches who will be left.
And as the generations change, hopefully these remaining bigot groups will preach to the dust in the pews, the dust of their departed, and the dust of the wrecking ball knocking over their houses of hate.
At one time you hated upon those who entered interracial marriages; to the point of murdering them. And even now many psychologist use a doctrine of”similarity” to stop such marriages from happening. Yet the homogenous hetero. marriages are plagued with divorce even our own moral majority Govenor in the state of South Carolina. Who are you people to tell consenting adults where they may and with what other”Adults” thet may lay their heads?!!!!! Whatever
Equal Treatment is the Constitutional RIGHT of every American– Gay or straight, black or white, man or woman–and this right should NEVER be determined by the popular vote.
The Constitution is meant to protect the minority from the prejudicial will of the majority, not give the many (by means of the vote) a way to take away the rights of a disenfranchised few!
Using the popular vote as a means to deny the equal rights of a minority is not Democracy! It is voter approved bigotry.
Even the LGBT community, by spending huge amounts of money fighting for our rights at the polls, unwittingly legitimizes the idea that our rights should be determined by the majority vote! It is time to change the strategy!
It is time to challenge our President, our Law Makers and Our Representatives to uphold the Constitution.
On February 28, 2008, as a Presidential candidate, Senator Obama stated: “Equality is a moral imperative…As your President, I will use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat same-sex couples with full equality…I will never compromise on my commitment to equal rights for all LGBT Americans…”
Now– as our President, he tells us that we must be patient because, in his words, “there are those who still need to be convinced”.
With all due respect, Mr. President, if the African American community’s civil rights had been determined on a state by state basis by the popular vote, there are areas in our country to this day, where segregation would be the “will of the people” because “there are those who STILL need to be convinced.”
I am not equating the African American struggle, or the women’s rights struggle, or the struggle for Religious freedom, with the LGBT struggle. Each group has historically faced it’s own unique challenges and discrimination. They are, however, comparable in one way. None should be determined by the “popular vote” and none of them were– EXCEPT the civil rights of LGBT Americans. This is unacceptable!
There is NO legal or socially moral reason to deny FULL EQUALITY to all. This denial is based on a particular religious belief–and no one’s religious interpretations should be allowed to justify denying a group their Civil and Social Rights. To do so is a blatant violation of the separation of church and state.
Mr. President, I would challenge you to show the courage of young Will Phillips. Give him back his Country’s Pledge. Show him that “Liberty and Justice for ALL” is not a lie!
The work toward equality is far from finished and that we still have a long way to go with even blue states like NJ and NY and with lot of other states.
DE and MD have been progressing forward under our current governors but DE and MD still have a way to go. DE has a young and openly gay-friendly governor at this time.