Wednesday, November 7, 2012

On Gay Marriage, Will High Court See a "Tipping Point"?

As Maine goes, so goes the nation.
— Traditional political adage

      The press release hit e-mail boxes shortly before midnight on election night (Nov. 6): “Mainers Approve Marriage for Same-Sex Couples; First Time Freedom to Marry Passed in Ballot Measure.” For gay rights advocates, the vote in Maine broke a string of 31 consecutive defeats in statewide voting on marriage equality. By the next morning, however, they could claim a four-state winning streak, as voters in Maryland and Washington state also approved measures to recognize same-sex marriages and Minnesotans rejected a measure to ban same-sex marriage in the state.
      Voting in all four states was close, but not razor-thin. The gay marriage proposals won with 53 percent in Maine, 52 percent in Maryland and Washington. In Minnesota, the constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman failed with a little under 48 percent of the vote.
      The margins were far smaller than the 2-to-1 majorities that gay marriage opponents typically gained in their string of victories dating from 1998 in Alaska and Hawaii. Still, a win is a win, however close, whether in baseball or politics. Gay rights organizations were trumpeting the results even as gays and lesbians around the country were hailing the victories as a watershed event. “The word tipping point comes to mind,” Ian McCann, a gay journalist in Dallas, posted on his Facebook page.
      LGBT Americans had other grounds for celebrating. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, will become the first openly LGBT member of the Senate in January after defeating her Republican opponent, popular former governor Tommy Thompson, by a 5 percent-plus margin. Baldwin’s House seat was won by another openly gay Democrat, Mark Pocan. Mark Takano, a Japanese American, became the first openly gay person of color to be elected to Congress by winning a House seat in California. In all, the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund counts six openly gay members of the U.S. House and seven candidates who won election as the first or the only out members of their state legislatures. “This was a breathtaking leap forward,” said Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the fund.
      Gays and lesbians were also celebrating President Obama’s re-election. Obama had disappointed the LGBT community in his first two years in office by moving slowly on repealing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and failing to get behind a federal bill to ban anti-gay discrimination. But he solidified support after signing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” repealer in December 2010 and then again when he endorsed marriage equality for same-sex couples in May 2012.
      More important than any individual race or ballot measure, gay marriage appears to have achieved majority support nationwide, according to several recent polls, and with that support appears to be receding as a political wedge issue. Republican strategists used anti-gay marriage amendments in 2004 to help drive the GOP base to the poll. The tactic may or may not have helped George W. Bush carry Ohio and with it win re-election, but regardless there was little evidence in the 2012 balloting that support for gay marriage carried a political cost. At the head of the ticket, Republican Mitt Romney said he opposed gay marriage but did not highlight the issue.
      The victories in Maryland and Washington came after state legislatures voted to recognize same-sex marriages; in both states, Democratic governors pushed the measures through Democratic-controlled legislatures, but won only thanks to a handful of votes from Republican lawmakers backing the party lines. Opponents forced referendums on the measures, professing confidence that voters would reject the laws; they were wrong.
      Once the newly approved laws take effect, gay marriage will be legal in nine states — Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, Washington — plus the District of Columbia. Of those 10 jurisdictions, elected lawmakers voted their approval in eight — all but Iowa and Massachusetts. Opponents can no longer blame activist judges alone for “redefining” marriage; the change is now coming through the political process.
      The argument over the litigation strategy versus the political strategy has simmered within the LGBT community. Those who favored going to courts argued for boldly claiming constitutional rights now, not later; those who stressed the political route warned of a backlash that could harm, not help, the cause. From the perspective of 2012, it appears that both sides can claim vindication. Without litigation, the issue would never have risen to the top of the national agenda. Without victories in legislatures and at the ballot box, favorable court rulings will be hard to win and — as in California, with Proposition 8 — at risk of reversal.
      The wall of anti-gay marriage constitutional amendments, adopted in most red and a handful of blue states, now poses a daunting obstacle for marriage equality advocates. Reversing them through the political process is out of the question today, and perhaps for the foreseeable future. For that reason, the focus of attention must inevitably shift to the Supreme Court, which could decide to hear the constitutional challenge to Proposition 8 later this term. As Mr. Dooley wisely observed, the Supreme Court reads the election returns. It remains to be seen whether the justices will look to Maine as a bellwether on this issue.

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