FEDERAL MARRIAGE AMENDMENT: Election Year POLITICS Could Yield Lasting Discrimination
As the presidential election heats up and fighting intensifies in swing states, political wedge issues such as the Federal Marriage Amendment will grab more of the spotlight and will take on an increasingly bitter and partisan tone, say advocates, with the potential to cause lasting harm and set in motion a long-term state-by-state battle over the issue of abrogating all rights for same-sex couples.
"The votes on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in '96 and the constitutional amendment votes in Georgia and Massachusetts this year show how quickly legislators can buckle when pressured by the right-wing grassroots machine," warns Ramona Ripston, Executive Director of the ACLU of Southern California. While polls demonstrate that the majority of Americans are opposed to the Federal Marriage Amendment, according to Shenna Bellows, ACLU National Field Organizer, it's critical that we match the right-wing grassroots "letter for letter, phone call for phone call, and visit for visit to put a face on the real majority of Americans who oppose writing discrimination into the Constitution."
While the ACLU and its allies, including Parents, Friends, and Family of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), are leading an aggressive campaign against the Federal Marriage Amendment, including weekly lobbying, a coordinated district office visit campaign, and weekly meetings to coordinate national strategies, right-wing anti-gay forces have mobilized a massive grassroots campaign in support of the amendment.
"We're hearing from Congressional offices all over the Hill that supporters of the Federal Marriage Amendment, particularly in the South and the Midwest, are far outstripping us in terms of faxes, phone calls, letters, and in-district meetings," said Bellows, who, along with allies, conducted a survey of offices to assess the levels of grassroots pressure.
Bellows estimated that in critical swing districts around the country, supporters of equality are running behind by margins as high as 10-1. Bellows believes that grassroots pressure is a critical factor both in securing leadership in safe districts and in giving pause to legislators from toss-up districts.
The amendment is expected to come up for vote in early fall, though Senator Frist had pushed for a May 17 hearing to coincide with the first day Massachusetts will begin granting licenses. The summer months will be a critical window of opportunity to generate additional grassroots opposition.
Bellows says there are clear steps that every ACLU member can take: "Send an e-mail to your Congressional rep., and once you've sent the e-mail, schedule an in-district meeting with that representative. We can make a difference, and we must make a difference to prevent discrimination from being permanently enshrined in our Constitution."
MAY 2004
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