While LGBT
citizens and supporters were rejoicing at the Connecticut
supreme court's Friday decision to legalize same-sex
marriage, others were already weighing what effect the
ruling might have on this year's marriage
amendment battles in California, Arizona, and Florida as
well as the presidential election.
Kate Kendell,
executive director of the National Center for Lesbian
Rights, thinks the Connecticut decision is a victory on the
path toward "crushing" Proposition 8, a
measure that would -- if passed -- eliminate the right
to same-sex marriage in California.
"What's happening in Connecticut just helps
show how offensive this backward Proposition 8
is," Kendell said. "We need to defeat it, once
and for all. It's time for us to see our
relationships accorded the same dignity and protection
as everybody."
The decision
makes one thing clear, according to the LGBT activist: more
and more policy makers, elected officials, and average
Americans do not want their gay and lesbian neighbors,
coworkers, and family members to be excluded from full
equality.
Hunter College
political science professor Kenneth Sherrill shared
Kendell's perspective that the ruling would reinforce
the California Supreme Court's decision and
potentially cause voters to question the wisdom of
Prop 8.
"It now
becomes easier to think that California [voters] will follow
Connecticut's lead as well as other states,"
Sherrill asserted.
Sherrill
said the Connecticut decision coming right on the heels
of the California decision might indeed be announcing
a new trend that other states will follow.
"It's a brilliant decision and a great
positive example for the nation," he said of
the fact that the court found that marriage equality is
constitutionally required.
Though the
decision constitutes major progress in the quest for equal
civil rights for LGBT individuals, Sherrill also noted that
a lot of people are still virulently opposed to
same-sex marriages. "We have won in a court of
law," he explained, "but we now have to win
public opinion, and public opinion seems even harder
because it's not rationally based -- it relies
on emotions."
In fact, several
polls in the past couple of weeks have found that the
court of public opinion is still wavering on gay marriage.
In the wake of a successful ad campaign by opponents
of marriage equality, internal polling by Equality
California, the organization working to defeat the
marriage ban, found that 47% of California voters said they
favored the initiative while 43% planned to vote
against it.
Sherrill
anticipated that the religious right would try to use
Connecticut to scare people, but he still concluded it was a
net plus for LGBT people. "I believe
we're on stronger footing on using this decision
than they are, " Sherrill said, referring to social
conservatives.
As if to
underline his point, none of the websites of the usual
suspects -- Focus on the Family, Americans for Truth, the
Family Research Council -- put up action alerts on
their sites about the ruling.
The Family
Research Council's Tony Perkins did, however, call
the ruling "outrageous and shameful" in an
interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network.
"This radical redefinition of marriage will have
severe consequences for children, families, religious
liberties, businesses, and every facet of society as
we know it," Perkins said.
In terms of the
presidential election, both Kendell and Sherrill
said voters are too preoccupied with pocketbook matters
to prioritize social issues in the voting booth in
November. At a time when people are losing their homes
and the stock market is plummeting, same-sex marriage
seems to be the last thing most Americans are thinking
about.
