April 5, 2009
A Push Is On for Same-Sex Marriage Rights Across New England
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
BOSTON — The Iowa Supreme Court’s approval of same-sex marriage on Friday gave
advocates an important first victory in the nation’s heartland, thwarting the
notion that only the Northeast will accept it.
But for now, New England remains the nucleus of the same-sex marriage movement,
with a campaign under way to extend marriage rights to gay men and lesbians in
all six of the region’s states by 2012.
Massachusetts has allowed same-sex marriage since 2004, and Connecticut began
allowing it last fall. The Vermont Legislature just voted to let same-sex
couples marry, and supporters hope to gather enough votes to override a veto
promised by Gov. Jim Douglas, a Republican.
New Hampshire is not far behind; its House of Representatives approved a
same-sex marriage bill last month. The legislatures in Maine and Rhode Island
are considering their own versions, though they are not as far along in the
process.
Across New England, advocacy groups have been raising money, training
volunteers and lobbying voters and lawmakers as part of a campaign they call
“Six by Twelve,” led by the legal advocacy group that persuaded the Supreme
Courts in Massachusetts and Connecticut to allow same-sex marriage in 2003 and
2008.
Equal rights advocates said Friday that while the Midwest in general was
culturally and politically different from the Northeast, Iowa shared New
England’s independent streak and so was a logical place to file another court
challenge.
“We picked Iowa because many of us who don’t live in the Midwest might think of
it as being a conservative monolith,” said Jennifer C. Pizer, marriage project
director for Lambda Legal, which argued the Iowa case. “But people who know
Iowa have been saying for some time that it is different from its neighbors.
There’s a tradition of independence and willingness to stand up on issues of
fairness.”
As in most New England states, voters in Iowa cannot initiate constitutional
amendments, a common strategy for blocking same-sex marriage elsewhere. In
California, voters last fall amended the State Constitution to ban such
marriages after a court decision made it legal. The California Supreme Court is
considering a petition to overturn the ban, but many legal scholars have
predicted that it will be upheld.
Proponents of same-sex marriage in California are building support among voters
in hopes of making it legal there, probably through another ballot measure in
the next few years. And at least six states outside New England (Illinois,
Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Washington) have same-sex
marriage bills before their legislatures this year, but none are expected to
pass.
Critics say the success of the movement in New England is largely because
courts and legislatures, not voters, are making the decisions. Voters have
approved constitutional bans on same-sex marriage in 26 states since the
Massachusetts law, a landmark, took effect; the constitutions of four other
states also limit marriage to heterosexuals.
“Activists have targeted these states because they think it’s going to be
easier to convince legislators than the populace,” said Brian Brown, executive
director of the National Organization for Marriage, a group established to
fight same-sex marriage. “They’re doing everything they can to keep the public
from having a part in this process.”
But Prof. David H. Watters, director of the Center for New England Culture at
the University of New Hampshire, said there were also deep-rooted cultural
reasons for the momentum here.
Same-sex couples have found acceptance in New England for over a century, he
said, especially among its large intellectual class. In the late 1800s,
marriage-like relationships between upper-class women in and around Boston were
so common that a phrase — “Boston marriage” — emerged to describe them.
The region’s strong libertarian bent also helps explain why same-sex marriage
has found support here, Professor Watters said. “The New England states really
emphasize individual liberties,” he said, pointing out that the abolition and
women’s suffrage movements also started here. “There’s a strong regional
tradition that if somebody has rights, everybody ought to have them.”
New England is also the least religious region of the country, according to a
recent survey by Trinity College in Hartford. Evangelistic churches, often
among the most adamant opponents of same-sex marriage, are especially rare, and
Catholicism is waning.
Moreover, the Northeast is home to two of the three states — New Hampshire, New
Jersey and Vermont — that allow civil unions for same-sex couples, an
intermediate step that supporters say has made same-sex marriage seem less
threatening.
“People can see that the sky hasn’t fallen,” said Betsy Smith, executive
director of EqualityMaine, a group pushing for passage of the marriage bill.
Ms. Smith’s group has spent three years building public support in Maine, where
a legislative committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on same-sex marriage on
April 24. In November, the group got more than 31,000 voters at the polls to
sign postcards in support of same-sex marriage. The cards went to state
lawmakers, 64 of whom are listed as sponsors of the bill.
“We have a very methodical way of going out and training folks in the
communities on this as their own personal issue,” said Ms. Smith, who has a
staff of 10 full-time field organizers. “They talk to their family and
neighbors and co-workers, whether they are gay or straight, about how important
it is for everyone to have access to marriage.”
Rather than follow the strategy adopted in Connecticut, New Hampshire and
Vermont — seeking legislative approval of civil unions before same-sex marriage
— organizers in Maine and Rhode Island are going directly for marriage laws.
Civil unions, they say, relegate same-sex couples to a separate and unequal
category.
Advocates of same-sex marriage in Rhode Island said they were aiming for
legislative approval in 2011. That is when Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, a
Republican who is against same-sex marriage, will leave office because of term
limits. The leaders of the State Senate and House of Representatives, both
Democrats, have also expressed opposition.
But the same-sex marriage bill in the House has 31 sponsors out of 75 House
members; a similar bill in 2003 had only 4.
In Vermont, Governor Douglas is poised to veto a same-sex marriage bill that
recently passed both houses of the Legislature; supporters of the bill are
scrambling to gather the five additional votes needed for an override. Gov.
John Lynch of New Hampshire and Gov. John Baldacci of Maine, both Democrats,
are also opposed to same-sex marriage, though they have not said whether they
would veto the bills moving through their legislatures.
“Every time we talk about this issue we break down barriers,” said State
Representative James Splaine of New Hampshire, an openly gay Democrat who
sponsored the bill that will now move to the State Senate. “And if we are not
successful this year, we will be eventually.”
Meanwhile, equal-rights advocates said, the Iowa ruling was an important
reminder that New England is not the only place where same-sex marriage has a
future. New England is “probably considered nutty by a lot of the country,”
said Gary Buseck, legal director for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders,
and so the Iowa decision could have more national resonance.
“We still think that New England is poised to certainly set an example,” Mr.
Buseck said. “But this Iowa decision will be a real boost.”
Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to
http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/
