GAY LEADERS TRY TO REFRAME STRUGGLE FOR MARRIAGE RIGHTS: From the San Francisco Chronicle

From adopting a NASCAR dad to embracing the moral rhetoric of the 1960s civil rights movement, gay and lesbian leaders are rethinking their message and market after last week's sweeping election losses, but they are refusing to retreat on same-sex marriage. ...

Among the strategies under discussion:
-- Courting Republicans who now dominate Washington and are indebted to the social and religious conservatives who helped provide a record GOP turnout rather than devoting the lion's share of money and lobbying to liberal Democratic allies.
-- Continuing a strategic legal attack using "the right plaintiffs in the right place at the right time," as David Buckel, director of the Lambda Legal Marriage Project, put it, to challenge the new state marriage bans and to continue the push for marriage rights in more liberal jurisdictions, including California, New Jersey and New York.
-- Going on the offensive with state ballot initiatives to expand inheritance rights, hospital visitation and other benefits for gay and lesbian couples rather than defending losing battles against same-sex marriage bans.
-- Finding new allies in the religious community. "We have allowed the radical right to usurp and control the lexicon of family values, faith and morality," Guerriero said. Trammel agreed, saying it is "extremely important" to "not let people who are anti-gay seize the mantle of religion and morality."
-- Creating a new message for moderate to conservative voters who may be uncomfortable even using the words gay and lesbian by personalizing the issue with mainstream gay couples who are raising children or caring for elderly parents.

Those are the "middle third" of voters who are "reachable but not yet reached," said Evan Wolfson, director of activist group Freedom to Marry and one of the early leaders of the same-sex marriage movement. Polls show about a third of the country supports full marriage equality, another third not only opposes same-sex marriage but considers homosexuality immoral, and a middle third is not yet firmly decided.

more

posted by Eve at 7:02 PM VOTE

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home