GAYS DEFEND MARRIAGE

The good news is the California Marriage Protection Act will be on the November ballot. Of course, predictably, according to the Los Angeles Times, leading California Democratic strategist Garry South “described the ballot measure as part of a decades-old strategy by California conservatives to use a wedge issue to mobilize support during a presidential election.”

Let’s think about that. Same-sex marriage in Massachusetts began in May 2004, and 11 states voted to prevent their state courts from authorizing the same thing that November. California same-sex marriages are set to begin in June 2008, and the state will vote this November whether to overturn the decision implementing them.

On the other hand, in 1998 when the states of Alaska and Hawaii were facing Supreme Court decisions implementing same-sex marriage in the cases of Baehr v. Miike and Brause v. Alaska, voters passed constitutional amendments protecting man-woman marriage that November. Mr. South, who was elected president in November 1998?

Other states that voted on constitutional amendments protecting man-woman marriage at times other than during a November presidential election include Missouri, Nevada, Colorado, Tennessee, Kansas, Texas, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Virginia, and Arizona. All but the latter passed by decisive margins.

Mr. South, if your side will agree not to pursue lawsuits redefining marriage in 2011 and 2012, I’m certain my side will agree not to put constitutional amendments on the ballot at the same time as that year’s presidential race.

If you’re not willing to agree to that compromise, will you please stop claiming that our defense of marriage strategy is really a ploy to elect Republican presidents? I’d appreciate it.