By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman
WASHINGTON – The push against homophobic bigotry can, at times, feel like as big and as hopeless a task as the one faced by Sisyphus. Human rights activists achieved equal marriage rights in Massachusetts, for example, only to see the backlash as states rushed to keep gays from marrying in their backyards.
Now, the Human Rights Campaign and other human rights activists and organizations are working to stop the downhill roll of one of the biggest anti-gay boulders yet – the Federal Marriage Amendment.
Despite the fact that the FMA failed in 2004, two years later religious extremists in Congress are forcing a vote on the amendment, which would bar not only legal recognition of same-sex couples' right to marry, but civil unions as well.
"One month and counting until the Senate wastes more time on singling out a group of Americans for discrimination. The time to act is now and every day to the vote," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. HRC has joined over 100 religious, labor, civil liberties and other human rights organizations in the Coalition Against Discrimination in the Constitution. With the vote coming up, HRC has launched an ad campaign in press targeting LGBT Americans, urged more than 250,000 fair-minded Americans to act against the amendment, and released an online video aimed at encouraging action by highlighting the radical right's discriminatory campaign against full equal rights for same-sex couples.
The online video features clips of anti-gay rhetoric from George W. Bush, Sens. Rick Santorum and John Cornyn, the Rev. Pat Robertson and Bill O'Reilly, among others, in reference to the amendment and asks viewers to go to the Human Rights Campaign's Web site to fight back. HRC's print ad includes a photo of Sens. Rick Santorum and Bill Frist and tells readers, "This June the right wing will attempt to make GLBT people second-class citizens forever. Fight the Federal Marriage Amendment. Scheduled Vote June 5."
In addition, HRC has launched an aggressive email campaign urging recipients to sign postcards that the organization will hand-deliver to senators and representatives asking them to vote no on the amendment.
According to a July 2004 article on Findlaw by Joanna Grossman, a professor of law at Hofstra Law School in New York, the FMA marks the 28th time that a constitutional amendment has been proposed to regulate marriage and divorce at the national level. Three of those proposed amendments sought to ban interracial marriage.
None of these other attempts to strip states of their historical purview over marriage, however, has ever come up for a vote – let alone two votes.
"The ridiculousness of this amendment is what the issue is. The Republicans don't have the votes in the House or the Senate to pass this thing. It is just an election-year attempt to use the gay community to hurt Democrats and moderate Republicans," said Sean Kosofsky, director of policy for Triangle Foundation. "It's bad policy, it's bigotry, they know it can't pass."
While Kosofsky said that defeating the FMA is important, he stressed the importance to Michigan's LGBTs of keeping their eyes on legislative fights close to home as well.
"Our national leaders know that the FMA isn't expected to pass," he said. "I want to make sure people don't forget the fights at home."
Speak OUT against the Federal Marriage Amendment. To learn more about the HRC's campaign visit http://www.hrc.org.
You can also contact Michigan's U.S. Senators directly and thank them for their continued opposition to the FMA:
Senator Carl Levin: Call 202-224-6221. Email Senator Levin by visiting the Contact Center on his website at http://www.senate.gov/~levin.
Senator Debbie Stabenow: Call 202-224-4822 or TTY: 202-224-2066 or e-mail [email protected]
