The culture wars will return to Capitol Hill when the Senate votes this week on whether to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage, resurrecting a debate that exploded earlier this year but has been more muted since.
The emotional topic of same-sex marriage versus traditional marriage has sparked a grass-roots lobbying campaign pitting gay-rights activists against social conservatives. It has led some to threaten to “out” gay Republican and Democratic congressional staffers (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text). And it has spilled into the presidential and congressional elections, snaring politicians who would rather avoid the question.
The issue poses problems for both presidential candidates, highlighting Sen. John Kerry’s somewhat contorted position on gay marriage and threatening to cast President Bush as intolerant and insensitive to gay Americans. The debate follows clashes on abortion and school prayer and comes just as Kerry and Bush are emphasizing that their values are in tune with the nation’s citizens.
Bush, in his weekly radio address Saturday, said legalizing gay marriage would redefine the most fundamental institution of civilization and that a constitutional amendment is needed to protect it.
“If courts create their own arbitrary definition of marriage as a mere legal contract, and cut marriage off from its cultural, religious and natural roots, then the meaning of marriage is lost and the institution is weakened,” Bush said.
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Other Republican proponents of the amendment insist they are trying to protect a sacred institution, and they say they have no political motivation in raising the subject two weeks before the Democratic National Convention.
“Messing with the basic family unit in society is not something to trifle with,” said Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), a key sponsor of the legislation, arguing that activist courts have forced lawmakers to act now.
But opponents say the drive to amend the Constitution is a political ploy to insert a wedge between Democratic candidates and voters, causing centrists to flee to GOP candidates.
“They believe unless they deeply polarize the country further they will not win this election,” said Tad Devine, a senior adviser to the Kerry campaign.
There is one thing both sides agree on: Santorum and his allies do not have the votes.
To advance from the chamber, which is only one hurdle in the process, a constitutional amendment requires approval of 67 of the 100 senators, and the amendment is certain to fail.
But the vote is seen as a key test of strength that will send a signal to the rest of the country, including states considering amending their constitutions, about the appeal of a gay marriage ban.
A waste of time?
Democrats charge that proponents of the ban are wasting Congress’ time, not only because the amendment will not pass but also because an existing law–the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act — defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
They say there are more important things for Congress to do in a time of terrorist threats and languishing federal spending bills.
“This is not about changing the Constitution. This is about changing the debate in the presidential race,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). “The Bush administration can’t answer why its economic policy has failed so many working families and why its policy in Iraq has failed, so they want to change the subject.”
But Santorum said that although his coalition of social conservatives and religious groups may not win immediately, they intend to win eventually.
“I think this is a long battle, and this is the first step,” Santorum said. “I knew that when we began to get this ball rolling down the hill it would begin to pick up some steam.”
To amend the Constitution, backers must go beyond Capitol Hill. If both chambers approve an amendment by a two-thirds majority, it then goes to the states, where 38 of the 50 legislatures would have to ratify it. If that were to happen, the ban on gay marriage would be protected from all legal challenges.
The House has not yet voted on the amendment, and it is not clear whether it will this year.
In recent months, a flurry of legal activity has led social conservatives to worry that the federal Defense of Marriage Act would not stand up to judicial scrutiny. In Massachusetts, for example, the Supreme Judicial Court voted to give same-sex couples the right to marry under the state’s constitution. In addition to defining marriage for federal purposes, the marriage act gives states the right to recognize or deny such unions.
This latest push to firmly establish marriage as being solely between a man and a woman has set off a frenzy of grass-roots lobbying, including the delivery Friday to the Senate of more than 1 million signatures favoring a gay-marriage ban. An additional 1.1 million signatures were expected Monday.
The Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay-rights organization, has launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to defeat the amendment.
Some opponents of the amendment are fighting back by targeting congressional aides they say are “pro-gay by night and anti-gay by day.”
Gay activists Michael Rogers and John Aravosis say they have compiled a list of gay congressmen and senior congressional aides who keep their sexual orientation a secret and who support the marriage amendment.
“There is a conspiracy of silence on the Hill,” Rogers said. “We are exposing their hypocrisy.”
Last week, Rogers alerted Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a leading proponent of the amendment, that one of his aides was openly gay outside the office. Inhofe said the aide is not part of his personal staff and that he does not hire openly gay staffers “due to the possibility of a conflict of agenda.”
On the other side, foes of gay marriage have been targeting voters in battleground states to gather signatures for state constitutional amendments.
On Sunday–dubbed “Protect Marriage Sunday”–some pastors were expected to urge their congregants to call, e-mail and fax their senators, urging them to amend the Constitution.
Also Sunday, the Family Research Council and the Southern Baptist Convention will broadcast a nationwide satellite simulcast called “The Battle for Marriage,” encouraging church and radio audiences to participate in the political process and make their voices heard in Washington.
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“Most Americans believe that . . . marriage is a union of a man and a woman,” said Matt Daniels, president of the Alliance for Marriage, which helped draft the amendment. “And they want our laws to reflect what they are teaching their children at home.”
Other conservative activists hope that at a minimum, the debate over marriage will spotlight Kerry’s complicated position on the matter. In 1996 he voted against the Defense of Marriage Act. He says he opposes gay marriage, while favoring civil unions for homosexual couples. Kerry also opposes amending the Constitution to outlaw gay marriage.
“Sen. Kerry is going to have a hard time defending his position,” said Gary Bauer, president of the conservative group American Values. He said conservative voters may be more likely to turn out and vote in November because anti-gay marriage referendums are pending in battleground states.
At the Kerry campaign, officials said they don’t know whether Kerry or his running mate, Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), will interrupt campaigning to return to the Senate to vote.