As we bask in the glory of the life-affirming Supreme Court rulings concerning marriage equality, the inevitable question is where do we go from here?
While there are 13 states, plus the District of Columbia, that have marriage equality, there are 37 states that do not. When the framers of the Constitution established the three branches of government, each was designed to provide checks and balances against the power of any single branch. It is clear the executive branch supports marriage equality. President Obama came out, pun intended, for marriage equality in 2012. He also had the Justice Department refuse to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in front of the court. However, Congressional Republicans took up the fight.
Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that the federal government must recognize same-sex marriages performed by states that perform them, gays and lesbians will be afforded the same rights as their straight counterparts. The ultimate court in the judicial branch of government has spoken.
Coupled with the president’s support, that means that two branches of government checked the power and authority of the legislative branch. Congress now has the ability to create an amendment to the Constitution to permanently make marriage between “one man and one woman.”
Unbelievably, the extreme right wing of the Republican Party has every intention of doing just that. Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) is leading the charge.
I always challenge my Republican friends about their support of the party. When members of their party are actively trying to deny gays and lesbians marriage equality, how can they support them? Is their ability to be who they are trumped by other issues like taxes, social security or pension reform? That is what my Republican friends seem to be saying when they ignore or try to mitigate the homophobic opinions of some members of the Republican Party.
Are there Democratic Party members who share their views? Yes. But I guarantee that if the Constitutional Amendment ever comes to a vote, it will fail overwhelmingly, but most of its support will be from Republicans.
The LGBT community needs to remain vigilant. In the short term, our enemies are devising a containment strategy. How can we limit marriage equality to the 13 states and the District of Columbia? That means they will be raising money to prevent and delay our community from bringing ballot initiatives or referendums to voters in states that are on the bubble. For example, a state with civil unions or domestic partnerships should immediately be targeted by our community to move to full marriage equality with the voters or the legislature.
Our enemies will also use money raised to lobby state senate and assembly members to vote against any LGBT marriage equality bills.
We cannot forget our brothers and sisters who live in the other 37 states where they cannot marry the person they love. Gays and lesbians deserve marriage equality in every state of the union. Our biggest obstacles in the short term are the Republican House of Representatives and big right wing money. Our community is going to have to dig deep.
One way that those running to the alter might help is by having their wedding guests make a donation to an LGBT equality organization that will be on the forefront of the fights to come. That could be our statewide organizations where marriage equality has not been achieved, our national organizations that often provide critical support to statewide organizations, as well as advocate our equality at the federal level, or our legal groups who are critical when cases are brought before the judicial system.
We have won a major battle and have our enemies back on their heels. It is not time to smell the roses. In fact, we should be doing just the opposite. We are going to need to give more money or volunteer hours to ensure that every gay and lesbian in America has marriage equality. We can achieve that by voting out those who do not support marriage equality, as well as taking our fight to the courts yet again.
Just think of the progress we have made in the last twenty years, then think about our progress in the last three. Trust me, the next five years promise to be even better.
STAMPP CORBIN
PUBLISHER
San Diego LGBT Weekly
