Death of Colorado civil union bill stirs anger, spurs action for November election

Watershed moment(s)
The same evening the Colorado House descended into chaos — effectively killing the civil union bill during the regular session May 8, voters in North Carolina approved a ballot initiative that forbade any form of relationship recognition for same-sex couples.

The following morning, President Barack Obama went on national television to announce his full support for same-sex marriage.

Despite setbacks both here and in North Carolina, a half dozen LGBT activists interviewed by Out Front Colorado across the nation agree 2012 will be remembered as the point the tide turned.

“There are many encouraging signs coast-to-coast,” said legal director for Marriage Equality USA John Lewis. “It’s just tremendous what the President said. We’re already seeing a sea change, and it’s intensifying day after day.”

In fact in Maryland, where a question of same-sex marriage will be on the November ballot, a new poll released by Public Policy Polling found a significant increase in support for same-sex marriage among black voters.

The referendum to keep the state’s new law extending marriage rights to same-sex couples appears likely to pass — and the largest leap in support is coming from black voters, PPP’s Jim Williams said.

Fifty-seven percent of Maryland voters now say they’re likely to vote in November for the law. A 20-point margin is a 12 point shift from an identical survey in March that estimated the referendum would pass with 52 percent.

“Previously 56 percent (of black voters) said they would vote against the new law, with only 39 percent planning to uphold it,” Williams said. “Those numbers have now almost completely flipped.”

The question of same-sex marriage will likely also appear on ballots in three other states: Maine, Washington and Minnesota.

Washington’s question is similar to Maryland’s, upholding or extending current laws, while marriage equality activists in Maine are again asking voters to approve same-sex marriage. Minnesota’s question, if passed, would define marriage between a man and a woman.

What’s different now is opponents of same-sex marriage can no longer argue the President shares their position.

“Proponents of Prop 8 in California highlighted the fact that then-candidate Obama was on their side,” Lewis said. “Now, we have him on ours. In November, we really have the change to change things up.”

While all indicators point to success in November for the LGBT community’s fight for equality, don’t hold your breath for more ballot initiatives to spring up across the nation.

First, gay rights activist agree, the general public still cannot be trusted to support LGBT rights at ballot boxes. Second, there is broad agreement that rights for minority groups should not be voted on.

But, if-and-when marriage equality is established at a state level, same-sex marriage is still illegal at the federal level — for now.

“DOMA is on a collision course,” said the National Center of Lesbian Rights’ Legal Director Shannon Minter. “In the next three years, I predict, DOMA will be gone.”

The Defense of Marriage Act, passed in 1996 by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton, defines marriage between a man and a woman.

There are nearly a dozen court cases arguing DOMA or other bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, violating the 14th Amendment.

The highest-profile case is Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, or the Prop. 8 case. While it doesn’t deal directly with DOMA, even the most narrow of rulings finding bans on same-sex unconstitutional only in California, coupled with another case like Gill vs. Office of Personnel Management in the First Circuit Court of Appeals — which just ruled DOMA unconstitutional — could be the catalyst to allow marriage equality to spread throughout the U.S.

With DOMA out of the way, Minter said, it will put pressure on state lawmakers to allow same-sex couples to marry.

But the fight for equality doesn’t start or end with same-sex marriage, Minter said. Parental rights, regardless of marriage, need to be strengthened across the board.

“There are going to be gay couples who won’t want to marry, but still have families,” she said. “And they need to be protected, too.”

Foes of equality are also working in almost every state to erode rights for LGBT persons on several different fronts, Minter said. And they have new tricks up their sleeves.

Chief in the new playbook are new “conscience” amendments, similar to the initiative in Colorado supported by Focus on the Family (which has been withdrawn) and state laws that forbid protecting new classes of people: Think Colorado’s Amendment 2, with a twist.

Minter pointed to a year-old law in Tennessee that was enacted after Nashville passed an anti-discrimination inclusive policy. Now, it’s illegal for localities in that state to create or expand non-discrimination acts for jobs and public accommodations.

“The folks that are against us are very committed and are not standing still,” she said. “We have to be on guard.”
Some might argue there is no better reason to elect not only pro-LGBT officials to office, but LGBT people themselves.

This November, Colorado voters might be able to double the number of out lawmakers at the General Assembly.