The coming storm over marriage

By JIM THOMAS

LIKE GAYS IN the military in 1992, there's a storm coming our way, and we are totally unprepared. And this assault looks to be even worse.

When Bill Clinton announced in the summer of 1991 that he would lift the ban on gays in the military, the now-infamous video of our opponents, The Gay Agenda, was produced in 60 days' time, before the election was even held, just in case.

At the same time, most of our political leadership yawned, never having much liked Clinton, believing him likely to be too conservative. Because of stories of his sexual affairs, he was thought probably underneath to be a secret sexist. Nobody thought he could actually win. And besides, for many of our leaders coming out of 1960s anti-war activism, the military issue just wasn't one for which they could muster much enthusiasm.

The fabled support of the gay community for Clinton did not come from the organized gay and lesbian political community. No, the initiative came from people whose ties, rather, were as long-time Democratic Party activists and who were beginning to come out, not from long-time movement activists. But when the time came, it was the movement activists who had to get their followers mobilized.

The rest, of course, is history - and a rather sad history it is.

Amazingly, when the smoke cleared and we had lost badly, our leaders went in for a frenzy of Clinton bashing. I do not recall a single substantive analysis by anyone of importance in our community which took any real responsibility for what went wrong. It was all Bill Clinton's fault.

Now, it seems likely that the state courts in Hawaii will soon issue a ruling recognizing same-sex marriage in that state. If so, then the other 49 states will have to decide whether to continue to recognize marriages performed in other states, and the Hawaiian legislature will see legislation to amend its state constitution to overturn the ruling.

The signs, let me tell you, are ominous.

Already, Utah has passed legislation specifically saying it will deny reciprocity of recognition for same-sex unions. South Dakota fell one vote shy, and similar legislation has been introduced in Alaska.

This looks too much like 1992 replayed. Some of our activists have taken on one of the most important institutions in our culture, particularly for conservatives. We've known about this case for a couple of years, and it has received wide coverage in our press for at least a year.

What have our leaders done to prepare? Nothing, so far as I can tell. I've seen no position papers. I've seen no media talking sheets, no model legislation, no support videos to counter inevitable attack videos. Nothing.

And count on this, too: because we made no effort to hold an internal community discussion of the issue, we will not be unified. Much like the anti-war background of our leaders creating an emotional obstacle to support for the effort to lift the military ban, a similar effect will arise on this issue. There are some among us (who knows how many, as we haven't bothered to discuss the issue to find out) who will oppose lesbian and gay marriage because they object to marriage itself as a patriarchal and oppressive institution. Just imagine how that disagreement is going to play with the public.

You heard it here first. We are about to get creamed. Some of our activists have created a scenario in which we don't have to convince just one legislative body in Washington, but 50 legislative bodies, on an extremely controversial matter with no preparation for those having to carry on the effort. Indeed, some of those who will have to lead the effort, say in Frankfurt, Kentucky or Columbia, South Carolina, probably don't even know this will be their principal working issue a year from now. And they'll have to work the issue whether they support it or not because if they don't, some truly horrible legislation will be passed.

And you, my listener, must realize the same. Perhaps the Hawaiian court will unexpectedly rule against us, but that isn't what the talk is.

Get ready. And when the smoke clears, remember, Bill Clinton had nothing to do with this. We did this ourselves. Maybe we'll learn something this time.

Jim Thomas (no relation to OutNOW! publisher Chris Thomas) is the managing editor of the News-Telegraph in St. Louis, where this editorial originally appeared and is reprinted here with permission.