Gay-marriage advocates switch tactics

Posted on April 16, 2007
Filed Under USA |

Any day now, the Maryland Supreme Court may decide whether same-sex couples have a right to marry.

After Massachusetts’ highest court extended that right in 2003, many lawyers expected a cascade of lawsuits in other states. But resistance from conservative legal groups and the public has been stiffer than expected, forcing advocates to abandon the courts and settle for civil unions — at least for now.

A stepping stone to marriage
Maria and Lidia Agramonte-Gomez live with a 90-pound dog and five cats in a house perched at the top of a hill in New Britain, Conn. They met seven years ago and have lived together for six. On an April evening, they sat around eating flan for dinner and talking about Oct. 1, 2005. On that crisp New England day, Connecticut offered civil-union licenses for the first time in its history. Maria and Lidia rushed to the statehouse.

“We got up early, because I was concerned there would be a lot of people, and I didn’t want to spend the whole day there,” Maria recalled. “But there were only 26 people, so we ended up being first.”

The civil union was historic, but Lidia saw it as a necessary stepping stone to marriage.

“Because we can go back and we can say to people, ‘We have tried this civil union, this new social construct. And it isn’t equal,’” Lidia said. “If we had never tried it, then the argument on the other side, I think, would have been, ‘How do you know it doesn’t work, if you haven’t given it a chance?’”

Now the two women, along with other couples, are lobbying for Connecticut to take the next step: to enact a same-sex marriage bill. The Agramonte-Gomezes recently invited a state senator to their house, to meet with straight and gay folks about why they support same-sex marriage. Maria testified in March before the state legislature’s Judiciary Committee, a 12-hour marathon of testimonies for and against gay marriage. If the committee decides to approve a marriage bill, it will go before the full legislature.

Maria and Lidia embody the shifting strategy of advocates for same-sex marriage. Advocates long ago decided that it was too risky to allow these cases to go before federal courts, since they believe the current U.S. Supreme Court would not be favorably disposed toward this new type of marriage. But they have also shifted away from fighting in state courts. Instead, they’re wooing state lawmakers.

“We actually have seen a record number of states this year in which bills were introduced to end gay couples’ exclusion from marriage,” says Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry. “Some of them will move forward. Some of them may move forward slowly over a period of a few years. And some of them will see a nonlinear progress, where they may move toward marriage, but through other measures, such as partnership or civil union, on the way to marriage equality. But the conversation has begun, and it’s begun at the right level.”

Recently California, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico and Washington state have considered changing state laws prohibiting same-sex recognition. In New Hampshire, the state House has approved a civil-union bill, and the Senate is expected to pass it Thursday. Vermont already has civil unions, and New Jersey — faced with a command from the state’s highest court to strike down discrimination — passed a civil union law rather than a marriage law. Read more….

Source: NPR

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