Bans on same-sex marriage pass
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Same-sex marriage was banned in three more states Tuesday amid an election that many Americans viewed as progressive.
But the mantra of change did not sweep as far as the gay and lesbian community was hoping it would.
Arizona and Florida passed bans on gay marriage, and it looks as though the ban also will pass in California.
“It indicates, as a country, that we still have a long way to go,” said Brent Bilodeau, director of MSU’S LBGT Resource Center.
But California’s ban on same-sex marriage does not fully exclude gay and lesbian couples of spousal rights — they are still granted limited rights through domestic partnerships.
The California same-sex marriage ban, known as Proposition 8, passed by about 400,000 votes. But the state still needs to count about 3 million absentee and provisional ballots, assistant James Madison College professor and gay politics expert Michael Craw said.
Twelve states, including Michigan, banned same-sex marriage in 2004.
Although America decisively favored the Democrats on Tuesday, Craw said the voter demographic actually favored the bans.
“Senator Obama’s election made it easier to pass these measures because of the increased African American voter turnout,” Craw said. “African American voters tend to be socially conservative; a lot of white voters opposed the ban.”
But Obama’s campaign stressed change, and Josh Mendelson, an advertising junior, said he hopes the democratic government majority will be able to reverse the bans.
“Right now, we’ve lost a battle, but we haven’t lost the war. We still have time to get it passed,” he said.
Bilodeau said same-sex marriage bans reinforce a negative message about gay couples.
“I am very disturbed by the message (the bans) send to LGBT people. It reinforces an idea that our relationships are not legitimate,” Bilodeau said.
Massachusetts is the only state with legalized same-sex marriage, although four other states grant civil unions.
The gay and lesbian community will have to increase education nationwide on how same-sex issues also affect the straight population, Craw said.
“One goal we have in society is to help promote strong families, strong relationships,” Craw said. “Measures like this can break up gay and lesbian families, and that has an effect on society as a whole.”
But the increasing legislation against gay and lesbian marriage will force the gay community to find new routes to equal benefits, Mendelson said.
“It’s going to force us to get stronger and more unified,” he said. “Eventually, if we are patient enough, it will come. It will force us to find another way to get it, because we will never give up.”
Commentary
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Steve
(11/06/08 9:28am)Report
So much for “change” and “progress”.
Reality Checker
(11/06/08 10:30am)Report
Amazing wwhat happens when we(nominally a democracy) actually decide to let the people express their choice. Yet another sign that people don’t like being spoken for by an activist judiciary.
Ed T
(11/06/08 2:32pm)Report
Steve: Actually Barack “Change” Obama doesn’t support gay marriage, though he does support civil unions. IMO that’s the best way to go – pass a federal law that guarantees gay couples the same legal rights as hetero couples but leaves the word “marriage” out of it.
Our culture will eventually accept that civil union = married (we’re halfway there now), and we’ll even start using the word “married” for gay couples. But it’s best to let that happen naturally instead of trying to legislate it on people.
Tia E.
(11/06/08 8:12pm)Report
I’m glad they passed. The news media and Hollywood can’t force us to accept something that we don’t believe is right. The people voted, so the people spoke. No one made anyone vote one way or another, people voted for what they either agreed with and thought was right. And if that’s not democracy, I don’t know what is.
Besides, whose to say that allowing any and everything to go on in our country is progressive? That’s alittle unfair and biased to say that because we have morals and traditional family values, we are not progressing the US forward. Many people who believe in the sanctity of marriage are propelling the nation forward in technological, medical and many other industrial advances. So, it’s not right to say we’re going backwards because we have morals.
Jason Van Dyke
(11/06/08 8:30pm)Report
Personally I don’t care one bit about California. I would have opposed it only on the principal that the legalization of same sex marriage in California was based upon the decision of a Republican (and I used the term “Republican” loosely) activist judge. I could care less what Californians do, so long as they keep their nose out of Texas business.
What I found interesting was the California ballot initiative as a whole. Whether the decision was valid or not, there was a “right” to same sex marriage in California before this amendment passed. The reason I find it so interesting was because the voters passed a bill which, basically, gave rights to our food. But they took away a “right” belonging to human beings.
Only in California.
unfortunate that imbeciles still know how to type
(11/06/08 9:15pm)Report
So, Tia E., when you say “whose to say that allowing any and everthing to go on in our country is progressive?”, what exactly are you referring to? The rest of your post seems to be about gay marriage. Was there a proposal about allowing “any and everything” to go on in our country?
And also, if you are honestly living with a psyche that equates bigotry to morals, I hope for your sake that you go into a medically induced coma before you awake from you alternate reality one day. The shock of leaving your legion of inbred piglet mutants with cloven hooves to join the rest of us sane and reasonable people would likely be too much to bear. Please go somewhere else and stay there.