Reply #8: the enviroment was a lot different then

[dsc]

there was a real possibility, if not probability, of passing a Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage (one banning flag burning lost by a single, solitary vote). I lived in MS at the time and frankly I called gays the great uniters. Black and white folk in MS who could agree on pretty much nothing else, agreed gays were moral scum who shouldn't marry. I think a whole lot of people either weren't around in 96 or are choosing not to remember what it was like in 96. Heck, in 1996 gays could be fired, simply for being gay in New York state and Illinios let alone places such as say PA and OH. We couldn't pass hate crimes in 98 or 99 in the aftermath of Matt Shepard being tortured to death for being gay. It is impossible to prove a negative, but I do think that we very well could have had a federal amendment but for that bill.