http://www.newsmax.com/us/gay_marriage/2008/06/18/105690.html
Both Sides in Gay Marriage Fight Aim for Mainstream
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO -- When gay and lesbian couples started getting married
in California this week, one set of voices was quiet among the
choruses of "Here Come the Brides" - those of the conservative
activists who put a same-*** marriage ban on the November ballot.
Instead of appearing in front of the television cameras that recorded
joyful couples applying for marriage licenses, the sponsors of the
California Marriage Protection Act remained on the sidelines and
cautioned their sup****ters against disrupting weddings.
"We wish these same-*** couples well, our beef is not with them, but
with the judges who have the arrogance to rule that California's
marriage laws the voters approved are somehow akin to racial
discrimination," Brian Brown, executive director of the National
Organization for Marriage-California, said in a statement.
The low-key tactics show that opponents of same-*** marriage are
concentrating on politically moderate voters as they try to add
California to the list of 26 other states with constitutional
amendments outlawing gay nuptials.
At least one recent poll showed registered voters leaning against the
ballot measure - though results have been mixed _ and people involved
in the campaign said the effort could be doomed if gay-marriage
opponents come off as mean-spirited.
"This campaign represents the broad majority of Californians who
sup****t marriage, but are also very decent and tolerant people. Decent
and tolerant people don't show up to harass and intimidate anyone,"
said Andrew Pugno, legal adviser to ProtectMarriage.com, a coalition
of religious and social conservative groups that sponsored the
initiative.
For their part, gay-rights activists urged same-*** couples and their
sup****ters to afford the occasion the dignity it deserved. San
Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who officiated the wedding of two
lesbian activists in their 80s, dissuaded couples, for instance, from
scheduling group weddings or wearing elaborate costumes.
"Everybody is saying to their sup****ters on both sides, 'Tamp it down,
don't be outrageous in your conduct because it will turn people off,'"
said Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for
Governmental Studies, an independent nonpartisan think tank. "No
outrageous displays of affection and no outrageous displays of hatred,
because everybody is appealing to the middle."
As part of their strategy, gay-rights groups are attempting to
characterize the amendment's backers as extremists who are out of
touch with attitudes in California. They point to the full-page
advertisements Wa****ngton-based Family Research Council took out in
the Orange County Register and the Sacramento Bee on Sunday, saying
the start of legal same-*** marriage would lead to the term "father"
being removed from birth certificates.
"If you look at what the other side has been talking about recently,
they are not talking about lesbian and gay couples," said Geoffrey
Kors, executive director of Equality California, the state's largest
gay-rights group. "They want to raise all kind of other issues because
the way they feel they can have success is through fear.
"But fear won't work now because the public now sees lesbian and gay
couples getting married, and there is nothing to be concerned about,"
Kors said.
Pugno said it was too soon to say how the amendment's backers would
use images from the week of weddings in their campaign. While so far
their message has focused on the actions of the Supreme Court majority
that struck down the state's one-man one-woman marriage laws, pictures
of two brides and two grooms could be used to convince voters that the
definition of marriage is in their hands.
"In many ways, the images are a daily reminder that this major social
change did not come through the democratic process, but from a 4-to-3
vote of the Supreme Court, and that will keep it fresh in the voters'
minds," he said.
Maggie Linden, a public relations executive who is working on the
campaign to defeat the referendum, said the extensive media coverage
of couples standing in front of clergy with their parents and children
at their sides will help make the case for, not against, same-***
marriage.
"Californians fundamentally, time and time again, vote in a way that
says we believe in equality and we don't want people treated
differently," Linden said. "The images of yesterday and the day before
are exactly those images _ they are living and committed lesbian and
gay couples who are exercising their fundamental rights like everyone
else."
Kors said same-***-marriage sup****ters will be recruiting volunteers
and campaign donations not only at gay pride parades, but at county
fairs and other events.
"The sup****t for freedom to marry is broad and widespread, and the
opposition is really limited to right-wing organizations," he said.
The ballot initiative would amend the state constitution to "provide
that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in
California." Its language was taken directly from a gay marriage ban
enacted by voters in 2000, one of two the state Supreme Court found
unconstitutional and struck down on May 15.
Opponents and sup****ters of the November marriage amendment say they
could together spend $30 million campaigning. If their predictions
prove true, that would be more than the nearly $27 million that was
spent combined in the 24 states where such measures have been put to
voters since 2004, according to figures compiled by the National
Organization on Money in State Politics.
Donations from organizations and individuals outside California are
expected to play a large role in financing the referendum fight. Focus
on the Family, a Christian conservative group based in Colorado, and
the Wa****ngton-based Human Rights Campaign, a national gay-rights
organization, already have invested heavily in the campaign.
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