Gay Marriage Momentum

posted by Alan Greenblatt

I have a piece in our May issue about how the political dynamics have shifted on the question of same-sex marriage, with momentum suddenly on the "pro" side.

Given the print magazine's lead time, I knew that piece would quickly be overtaken by events, and sure enough, today the Washington, DC city council has voted to recognize gay marriages from other states, while the Maine House has passed legislation to approve of such marriages. (Update: Gov. Baldacci has signed the Maine legislation.)

Steve Butterfield, a Maine House rep, writes in to TalkingPointsMemo about the view from the floor:

I'm a state rep from Bangor, Maine, and I'm in the chamber of the state House of Representatives right now as we "debate" LD 1020, Maine's marriage equality bill, which was passed by the senate last week.

I'm struck by how overwhelmingly the balance of representatives today have spoken in favor - on both sides. A Republican representative known for being a staunch conservative gave an exceptional and moving floor speech early on this morning in which he said he realized "this is not about me" and announced his support.

Yes, there's the feeling of being a part of history, and yes, there's the camaraderie of righteousness that comes from being on the right side of a pivotal issue - but the mood here very much feels like this movement is more inevitable than it was even a month ago.

Can Gay Marriage Save the Economy?

posted by Zach Patton

Moral issues aside (which of course is a pretty tall order), people seem to agree on one thing about legalizing gay marriages: it's good for the economy.

Massachusetts has already seen over 10,000 gay weddings since the unions were legalized in 2004. And now that the state has repealed its 1913 law barring out-of-state couples from getting married there, Massachusetts expects gay marriages will pump an additional $111 into the state economy -- plus another $5 million in marriage license fees and sales and occupancy taxes -- in just the next three years.

Connecticut, where gay marriages became legal last month, could expect to see anywhere from $3 million to $13 million over the next three years.

And if California voters hadn't approved Proposition 8 last month, halting same-sex marriages in the state, California was expected to see an influx of $684 million into its economy over the first three years such marriages were recognized -- and $65 million in fees and taxes to the state.

And according to the Congressional Budget Office, if all 50 states and the federal government were to legalize same-sex marriages, gay weddings would generate almost $1 billion a year.

It's hard to imagine gay marriage shifting from a moral issue to an economic development one (although isn't that what happened with lotteries in many states?).

Meanwhile, for a light-hearted (and I guess not entirely safe-for-work) take on all this, check out this clip from FunnyorDie.com, "Prop. 8: The Musical." In it, the cast (a lot of whom you'll probably recognize) convinces supporters of California's Proposition 8 to drop their opposition to same-sex unions because, as they sing, "gay marriages will save the economy."

Or you can watch the video after the jump.

CA Nuptials Break Record

posted by Zach Patton

The LA Times has an interesting interactive map about the record-breaking number of marriages that have happened since same-sex unions were legalized on Monday night.

Topping the list is Los Angeles County, the state's largest with a population of about 9.9 million, which issued one license on Monday evening in Beverly Hills and 648 Tuesday. San Diego County, population about 3 million, was second with 230. San Francisco County, population 765,000 was third with 212. Officials in Sacramento County, which usually issues about 25 licenses a day, issued 134 by closing time at 8 p.m. Tuesday. The county has 1.4 million residents.

Taxing Gay Couples

posted by Alan Greenblatt

Here's a wrinkle to the same-sex marriage debate I admit I hadn't thought of before reading about it in the Hartford Courant's Capitol Watch blog. Apparently, some automated tax preparation software doesn't know what to do when gay couples file jointly.

H&R Block's Web site says, "We don't support Connecticut Civil Union returns." That led the ACLU to send the company a warning that it's practicing discrimination under that state's laws.

It turns out that it's the software, not the company, that doesn't support civil unions. H&R Block will do the taxes who show up at its offices, but that costs $155 more than doing it online.

TurboTax, meanwhile, will work just fine for gay couples who are married, in civil unions, or in registered domestic partnerships.

OK Lawmaker: Gays More Dangerous Than Terrorists

posted by Zach Patton

An anti-gay speech made by Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern has hit YouTube, and the lawmaker is getting a lot of flak for it.

Kern is defending her comments, saying she would "never" engage in hate speech. But it's not suprising that her comments have been inflammatory:

I honestly believe it's the biggest threat our nation has, even more than terrorism or Islam.

You can hear part of the video in this report.

Rick Perry on Bush, Obama and the Boy Scouts

posted by Zach Patton

The New York Times Sunday magazine had an interview with Perry this week. (Wonder if Perry did the interview before the Times' hit piece on the presidential candidate he endorsed?)

Here's what we learned from Perry's interview.

Obama = Karl Marx:

What do you think of Barack Obama? I think he is a very attractive, very intriguing and, to many, a very stimulating candidate. I think he is one step away from being a socialist.

George W. Bush luuuuvs to spend money!!

As a Republican who is known to be more conservative than your predecessor as Texas governor, George W. Bush, what do you make of the deficit he has run up in Washington? George was never a fiscal conservative. The Texas Legislature spent a lot, and he signed the bill.

Gay Boy Scout leaders want to turn your son gay! Also, "homosexual" is a confusing word.

Let’s talk about your new book, “On My Honor,” which draws on your experience as an Eagle Scout and champions the values of the Boy Scouts of America, to whom you are donating your royalties. Yes, to their legal-defense fund.

Which has been fighting the A.C.L.U., to keep gays out of the scouts. Why do you see that as a worthy cause? I am pretty clear about this one. Scouting ought to be about building character, not about sex. Period. Precious few parents enroll their boys in the Scouts to get a crash course in sexual orientation.

Why do you think a homosexual would be more likely to bring the subject of sex into a conversation than a heterosexual? Well, the ban in scouting applies to scout leaders. When you have a clearly open homosexual scout leader, the scouts are going to talk about it. And they’re not there to learn about that. They’re there to learn about what it means to be loyal and trustworthy and thrifty.

But don’t you think that homosexuals might also be interested in being loyal and thrifty? The argument that gets made is that homosexuality is about sex. Do you agree?

No. Well, then why don’t they call it something else?

Gay: Blasé?

posted by Zach Patton

Is it buzzworthy anymore if a state legislator comes out of the closet?

Connecticut Rep. Jason Bartlett has announced that he's gay, but the Hartford Courant's Capitol Watch blog wonders what the big deal is:

"I don't know if that's news," Bartlett said.

Once, it clearly was. In December 1990, Joseph Grabarz, then a state representative from Bridgeport, made national news by announcing he was gay. At the time, Connecticut was considering gay rights legislation and Grabarz was one of only nine openly gay legislators in the U.S.

Today, Connecticut alone has at least a half-dozen openly gay lawmakers.

Of the approximately 500,000 elected officials in America, about 400 of them are openly gay or lesbian, according to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based political action committee. So I guess it's still noteworthy when another legislator comes out. (Plus, Bartlett appears to be the first openly gay black legislator in the country, so that's a pretty big deal.)

Still, it's interesting to see an announcement like this be met with shrugs and yawns.

Gay Rights Legislation in Idaho?

posted by Josh Goodman

States never cease to surprise me. A case in point, Idaho. According to the Spokane, WA, Spokesman Review:

BOISE – An Idaho Senate committee voted 6-2 on Monday – Martin Luther King Jr.-Idaho Human Rights Day – to introduce legislation to extend Idaho's anti-discrimination laws to cover sexual orientation.

If enacted, the bill would make Idaho the 21st state to make that change.

Legislative sponsors, who include Republicans and Democrats, say the issue is not homosexuality, it's discrimination.

...

Idaho's 40-year-old human rights law bans discrimination in employment, housing and places of public accommodation based on race, sex, religion, color or national origin. It doesn't cover sexual orientation.

This is just a preliminary step, so it will be interesting to see whether this legislation goes anywhere. If you look at the Human Rights Campaign's map of state laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, every state to approve such a law so far is either a Democratic state or a swing state in presidential politics.

When Losing Might Be Winning

posted by Josh Goodman

On the morning of November 5, 2008, the day after Election Day, social conservatives may be celebrating Florida's vote on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Alternatively, social conservatives may be bemoaning the results of the vote. Or both, simultaneously.

The amendment, which recently reached the number of signatures needed to make the ballot, requires 60 percent of the vote to pass. If recent history is a guide, that will be a tough threshold to reach.

Of the eight states that voted on gay marriage bans in 2006, support in only three, South Carolina, Idaho and Tennessee, surpassed 60 percent. The amendments came up short of that mark in each of the swing states to vote (Colorado, Virginia, Wisconsin and Arizona, where it failed to reach 50 percent).

Plus, popular Republican Governor Charlie Crist's support for the proposal is somewhere between tepid and non-existent. Thus, social conservatives are likely to lose the vote on the amendment itself.

However, the amendment may induce more conservatives to come to the polls. If they do, and if those voters also punch the chad of the Republican presidential nominee, the gay marriage measure could swing Florida's crucial electoral votes to the G.O.P., without even passing.

Gay Bars and Urban Planning

posted by Zach Patton

What do gay bars have to do with urban planning? Maybe a lot.

In a very interesting Boston Globe op-ed, writer Robert David Sullivan discusses the shrinking number of gay bars in Boston, and how that's part of an overall urban shift from small gathering spaces (bookstores, bars, cafes) to less inviting businesses (bank branches, eyewear stores).

The gay bar, Sullivan writes, is akin to the Jewish deli in New York, or independent booksellers around Cambridge, Mass. They've been steadily declining in recent years, to their communities' detriment. Sullivan blames the usual suspects -- rent increases, the Internet -- for why these small, indie businesses are closing.

It has a major impact on the urban fabric, Sullivan says:

This change is a serious challenge to the city, which has historically been defined by the breadth and variety of its street-level experience - and the wide diversity of people it threw together. "City air makes free," a saying that dates to medieval times, was a favorite of urban-studies pioneer Jane Jacobs. But as a wide range of gay bars dwindles to a handful of survivors - and the city's diners, indie bookstores, and dive bars yield to high rents and shifting patterns of commerce - that air is becoming the province of an increasingly narrow set of people.

photo via Flickr, from sfPhotocraft