Going for broke in battle over gay vows

[davidinalameda]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/23/MNGBNGRIFE1.DTL

Orange County attorney Richard Gilbert says the lawyers fighting for same-sex marriage across the country are leading the gay and lesbian community astray.

The widely accepted strategy for legalizing same-sex marriage -- to push for legislation and court victories state by state -- is too timid, Gilbert said at his office in Santa Ana, the county seat of one of California's conservative bastions. He thinks they should be fighting nationally and has sued Orange County in federal court, saying the U.S. Constitution guarantees a marriage license to his clients, a gay couple.

But leaders at Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Equality California say a U.S. Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage that comes too soon could result in the entire gay community losing rights, not gaining. They are doing whatever they can to stop Gilbert's suit.

[GodlessBiker]

1. I would expect this from HRC, not from Lambda.

Frankly, I'm shocked that Lambda moved to have the case dismissed from federal court.

[sui generis]

2. I think it needs to be fought at the federal level

We just need better fighters.

Playing the pity card doesn't work. We have to speak their language - civil marriage is about property rights and fiscal responsibility, period, and has nothing to do with church marriage or traditional marriage.

And marriage in the eyes of the government shouldn't be just about animal husbandry anyway. If the government can't guarantee that traditional marriage should be between one man and one woman who promise and intend to procreate, then it has no business defining civil marriage exclusively as a reproductive exercise.

If the government can't guarantee the fitness of individuals to be parents then it can't assume the fitness of two individuals of the opposite sex to be fit parents either, or more fit than any other non-traditional family form. If it wants to build strong families, it has to be prepared to do something meaningful about it or else have the rhetoric exposed for what it is.

And most importantly of all, supporters of it have to rally in ways that are meaningful and newsworthy and effective.

[dsc]

3. this is a disaster waiting to happen

This could be Bowers V Hardwick all over again if we let this go forward.

[Meldread]

4. Their fear is rational, but...

...I still disagree. Fighting it state by state is too time consuming and resource intensive. Their fear is a rational one, as it can certainly backfire, but if we don't start taking risks we'll never get ahead.

I also believe we should do more than hedge all our bets on Supreme Courts. We should be fighting things on a state by state legislative level as well, with a focus on the more liberal States. We almost got gay marriage that way in California if it wasn't for Arnold. We should also put a heavy emphasis on Democratic Leaders to get behind our causes, and give them real consequences if we don't.

There should be a serious backlash against a Democrat who does not take a stand that is pro-gay, I don't care where it is. Paul Hackett almost won his previous election in an EXTREMELY conservative district and he was very vocal about his support for gay marriage, the right for gays to serve openly in the military - he was supporting us straight across the board. The fact of the matter is, those who are willing to withhold their vote on gay marriage ain't gonna vote for a Democrat anyway, so why bother with them when you can mobilize LGBT people who *WILL* vote for you?

We need to offer some serious consequences to Democrats who fail to fall into line behind our issues. We should even openly court moderate Republicans (key word: moderate) and third party candidates to show Democrats that we mean business. We should be willing to demand our rights, and be willing to prove to Democrats that we aren't going to roll over and let them just take our money and get our vote during election season and then forget about us afterward. As long as we do that, they'll keep screwing us over.