As Massachusetts celebrates four years of marriage equality, 60 million Americans now live in three states where gay marriages are recognized. California’s high court and New York’s governor made it possible for millions more Americans to opt for marriage–and have their marriages recognized and respected.

On the heels of these hard-fought for victories, the USA Today/Gallup Poll announced on June 3 that 63 percent of Americans from every area of the country believe that same-sex marriage is “strictly a private decision” between two people. The approval ratings are a tribute to the fair-mindedness and love for equality that are inherently American. Here’s the regional breakdown of the statistics: East (71 percent), West (64 percent), Midwest (63 percent) and South (56 percent). More

Our trailblazing in Massachusetts broke barriers and proved to the country that marriage equality for all is good.

 Prof. Mark Rozell of George Mason University pointed to the fatuousness of the “overheated rhetoric, about the consequences of gay marriage in Massachusetts.” He says that the poll results show that people didn’t see our marriages “affect their own lives.” He adds, “Now, most people have let loose a collective yawn about the issue.” 

While the “collective yawn” might be viewed as a good thing, it is in sharp contrast to the excitement that millions of gay men and lesbians feel at having attained another civil right that allows us to protect ourselves and our families.

The “yawn” is also in sharp contrast to the reaction of the far-right group Save California that is encouraging people to call their county clerks and tell them not to issue same-sex marriage licences. Dan Savage reports that they suggest the following on their website:

Ask your county clerk if they were a Nazi officer during WWII and had been ordered to gas the Jews, would they? At the Nuremberg trials, they would have been convicted of murder for following this immoral order.

So in the wild stretch that is called right-wing spinning, county clerks who swear to uphold the California Constitution are being likened to Nazis.

The Massachusetts Family Institute tried the same ploy. They encouraged clerks to resign rather than uphold their oath of office and issue same-sex marriage licenses. In the end, one or two clerks did resign, but the big story was about the courageous clerks who went one step further and refused to deny licenses to out-of-state couples and took the governor and the attorney general to court over forcing them to act in this unconscionable manner.

They lost only because the racist inspired 1913 law directed at inter-racial couples is still on the books in Massachusetts. The law prohibits couples from marrying in Massachusetts if their home states will not recognize their marriages. But now same-sex couples from New York and California can come to Massachusetts and marry. The 1913 law must be wiped off the books. It’s a disgrace to Massachusetts that has led the way in achieving equality for so many.

With the clear vision of 63 per cent of the people in this country there is no more room for bigotry. Soon 60 million will be yawning at the ordinary, yet somehow extraordinary, nature of marriage equality.

Maxine Wolfe, a seasoned lesbian political activist in many realms but notably in the women and HIV/AIDS movement, hosted the full house at the “At Home at the Archives” event featuring Courting Equality on November 25th. Maxine’s volunteer labor is typical of the energy that keeps the archives vital.

Maxine shared with the assembled group how LHA’s files on “marriage” have changed. “Marriage” used to be mostly about lesbians once married to men. Then the topic exploded as countries around the world and various US states became the sites of struggle for same-sex marriage. In the past three years, the files have begun to expand exponentially. The great part of the story is that once again LHA is preserving our herstory.

When Karen Kahn and I presented at LHA, what was distinctive about the event was the spirit of inquiry and the commitment to thoughtful exchange in the dialogue. In a sense, bringing to LHA our presentation about Courting Equality and the civil rights struggle that it details was like returning to our roots of lesbian feminism.

Even after Karen and I had committed to writing Courting Equality in the spring of 2005, we still had not decided that we would marry. We had engaged in the political lobbying for marriage equality as a civil rights struggle but not seen it as a personal goal for ourselves. We believed that marriage was a right that one should be able to exercise, not necessarily a life goal. Our critique of the institution of marriage had deep roots in our lesbian feminism of the 1970s. That same critique of marriage as an institution was held by many who came to LHA on November 25th.

The conversation probed the roots of marriage as it had been critiqued in particular by lesbian feminists in the 1970s. Karen and I were among that lively group of critics in the 1970s and have remained so. One of the thoughts that we came away from LHA with is the possibility that same-sex marriage may just provide the testing ground for new visions and versions of marriage to emerge. The gender stereotyping that feminists critiqued so meaningfully from the 1960s on went a long way towards liberating women and creating new options in our lives.

Lesbian feminist critiques of same-sex marriage may well liberate marriage. What’s critical is keeping the conversation going. What do you think about the possibility of liberating marriage?

Published July 28, 2007 11:00 pm – Members of national interfaith organization bring their message to Plattsburgh during their summer campaign across the state in support of Equality of Marriage Act.

Young adults campaign for same-sex marriage in New York
By ANDREA VanVALKENBURG
Staff Writer

PLATTSBURGH “” Brian Murphy recently left a pair of shoes with Sen. Joseph Bruno’s staff, asking the New York representative to walk a mile in his shoes.

The California man was one of 32 young adults who fanned out across New York to meet with residents and legislators in support of the New York State Equality of Marriage Act and the right for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender New Yorkers to marry.

“There’s such a need for this,” Murphy said when eight members of Soulforce Q, a national interfaith organization, stopped in Plattsburgh during their two-week Right to Marry Campaign across the state. More

       Once again youth are showing the way. The demographics of polls in favor of same-sex marriage promise us that when the younger generation dominates the voting public–there will be scant opposition to same-sex couples tying the knot.

       In New York this week, Brian Murphy led an attention getting demo by dropping off his shoes at Sen. President Joe Bruno’s office. The young man asked the anti-gay marriage Bruno to “walk a mile in his shoes.”  Bruno has been particularly snide in his comments about how he can block gay marriage for as long as he wants to. Now Soulforce Q, a dedicated group of young people who are pointing out the anti-democratic nature of religious opposition to gay marriage, wants to get other New Yorkers to think about the infringement of religion on politics.

       Soulforce Q enlivens democracy wherever they stop. They remind us that this country is founded on the separation of church and state. Centuries ago our forbearers realized how having church and state intertwined dimished people’s freedoms–particularly religious freedoms. Thus, when this country was founded a cardinal tenet in shaping our democracy was separation of church and state.

       The only opposition to gay marriage is religious opposition. There’s no problem with that. Everyone who is religious is free to hold that view but the problem emerges when folks with anti-gay marriage views start trying to impose their religious beliefs on others through legislative and constitutional laws.

       Maybe we need some more re-enactments of pilgrims leaving Europe to come to these shores to practice religious freedom. I vote for Soulforce Q to teach us those religious lessons and remind us of what democracy is all about. Let’s hear it for democracy and keep our ears to the ground for rumblings of a retro-theocracy.