I've been of divided mind about the best way to gain equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians -- whether to go all out for the Supreme Court to overturn all state laws, as it did in decriminalizing sodomy; or whether to allow the process to proceed state by state until a larger percent of the country already has it in their states. Then go for a knockout blow by the Supremes.
I had thought the only disadvantage to the immediate Supreme Court route was the likelihood that the current Court would not overturn laws such as CA Prop8, and thus it would be a setback for some time.
But now I'm seeing the positive side to the gradual, state by state approach. As each new state (now there are six) approves same-sex marriage, we get the cumulative effect of another demonstration that the dire effects predicted by opponents do not materialize. And with each one, there is likely to be less and less backlash.
Now comes a report of a poll in Iowa, whose courts overturned its laws against gay marriage earlier this year. In this poll, conducted by the Des Moines Register, 92% of respondents said that "gay marriage has brought no real change to their lives."
I haven't see the actual questions, so it's hard to know quite how to interpret that. On the face of it, it is highly significant. But it might be even more so, if some of those 8% who presumably said that it did bring change to their lives might have meant a positive change -- ie, same-sex couples who got married or were close friends or relatives. So those who felt a negative change might be even less than that 8%.
Now there's some data that is hard to deny or for the opponents to distort.
New York and New Jersey: Are you listening? The corhhuskers are leaving you urban sophisticates behind.
Ralph
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment