SAN FRANCISCO, March 5, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The San Francisco chronicle today offers an analysis of recent same-sex marriage events. The column, titled Gay Marriage Momentum Stuns Both Backers and Foes, chronicles the remarkable momentum that is driving the same-sex “marriage” movement.
As an illustration, the Chronicle cites the reaction of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to the decision by the New Paltz mayor to continue issuing marriage licenses despite criminal charges. Spitzer said that although New York does not allow same-sex marriage, its marriage regulations “raise important constitutional questions involving the equal protection of the laws.” He also suggested that New York accept as legal same-sex “marriages” contracted in other states. The Chronicle’s Carolyn Lockhead reported on the change in attitude and how quickly it has taken place. She cites the example of how Vermont legislators, only four years ago, fiercely debated the decision to allow civil unions for homosexuals. Now US President George W. Bush has said that civil unions are acceptable if that is what states want. “The fact that civil unions were considered a radical step in 2000 and they’re now considered nothing more than second class-citizenship by the gay community—and President Bush is not expressing opposition to civil unions—shows you how dramatically the issue has changed in just a few short months,” Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, told Lockhead in an interview. David Horowitz, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told Lockhead that President Bush should focus on preventing judicial activism rather than on a push to amend the constitution. The President “has allowed himself to focus on the wrong target,” he said. “Things are getting out of control when every mayor and public official feels free to interpret the constitution and issue rules that run pretty clearly contrary to state law,” he said.
Jim Pinkerton, a political adviser to the former President George H.W. Bush, asserts that rather than hurting the President, the same-sex “marriage” debate has only improved the Republican’s standing. “An amendment doesn’t have to pass. It’s like abortion. The right-to-lifers have been flaying away for 30 years and never notice that they don’t win. The Republicans get their energy and the right-to-lifers never get a victory. You get the energy out of a political movement by losing, not by winning.” Read the column at https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/03/05/ANALYSIS.TMP