Marriage Equality in Peril

‘Prayer warriors’ battle to pass state referendums banning gays and lesbians from marrying.

By John Ireland for In These Times magazine

Chuck Colson, evangelical powerbroker and founder of Prison Fellow Ministries, called the coming battle over marriage equality, ‘the Armageddon of the culture war.’

If the Religious Right seemed suspiciously quiet recently in the fight against same-sex marriage — get ready for a battle royale.

Conservative groups like Focus on the Family and the American Family Association put up a relatively weak fight when Massachusetts established same-sex marriage rights. Even San Francisco’s attempt at marriage equality in 2004 yielded mostly tame and disjointed protests.

But now that the California Supreme Court has ruled that barring same-sex couples from marriage is unconstitutional, the Religious Right’s top brass is galvanizing its funding base. It has reportedly summoned vast armies of “prayer warriors” to win the battle once and for all.

Groups from across the country are spearheading efforts in Arizona, California and Florida to amend those state constitutions to permanently restrict civil marriage to opposite-sex couples.

California’s Proposition 8 — a referendum on November’s ballot — would add the following language to its state constitution: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” A Field Poll released in July found that, by a 51 percent-to-42 percent margin, California voters opposed the proposition, with the greatest opposition coming from voters under 30.

Arizona’s Proposition 102 states, “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.” A February poll taken by Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication found that 49 percent of residents would vote in favor of a marriage amendment if it didn’t affect domestic partner benefits. Residents who said they’d vote against it accounted for 40 percent, while 11 percent said they were undecided. A majority vote is needed to approve the measure.

Meanwhile, Florida’s Amendment 2 would insert the following language: “Inasmuch as marriage is the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife, no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.” A June 3 Quinnipiac University poll found that 58 percent of Florida voters would support the proposition while 37 percent would oppose it. The amendment needs the approval of 60 percent of voters to become part of the state constitution.

The Religious Right is using these last months leading up to the election to amplify the debate nationally.

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