Watching the Sea Change: Post-Election Day One
We spent election evening with friends, watching returns. I don't usually pay much attention to election returns "as they are happening"–to me it's just analyzing the results for something that's already happened–but I enjoyed everyone's enthusiasm for our democratic process. This is not to say, however, that I was not keenly interested in what the results of this election would be, and it seems an unparalleled gift that nearly every result I had hoped for in this election came to pass.
Accuse me if you like of being a "single-issue voter", but there were a number of LGBT-related issues being voted on, and taken together their outcome mark a significant indication of changing attitudes in the American electorate, a change that moves toward affirming that I, an openly gay man, am on the way to gaining my full rights of citizenship and equality. Is that a "single issue", or is it arguably the only issue?
Anyway, this was a big year for ballot measures concerning marriage equality for LGBT people in America. They were of different types, each of which test the electoral water's temperature in different ways. In my home state, Maryland, and in the State of Washington, there were referendums on duly enacted legislation granting marriage equality to LGBT people: whether voters wished to veto or retain the legislation. In Minnesota, yet another in a string of proposed amendments to a state constitutions, of the kind that we've seen for years, restricting marriage to mixed-gender couples. In Maine, it was a popular initiative (i.e., instigated by the people) to recognize marriage equality, done in response to a hateful campaign in 2009 that vetoed marriage-equality legislation in that state.
The anti-gay forces — who claim that they are only in favor of "traditional" marriage and otherwise love gay people, but whose increasingly shrill anti-gay rhetoric belies that claim — were out in force, with carpetbags filled with money, and with lots of religious trappings and self-righteous preaching, trying to hold back the incoming tide of equality and civil rights for more people. Why they find it so desperately important to keep me from fully equal citizenship is something that is beyond my understanding, but with this election they've seen the tide flow mightily through their fingers and leave them in the undertow.
I am so very happy, and relieved, to see that all 4 ballot measures on state ballots (Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, & Washington) that opposed marriage equality were defeated in a resounding show of support for marriage equality across the country. I am also pleased that this happened despite huge amounts of money (millions of dollars, tens of millions, maybe more–it's hard to say when so much of the money spent is invisible), fear mongering, and campaigning from the pulpit led by the Catholic Church and its minions.
I think there's no doubt that this election was a clear repudiation of the fiercely hateful anti-gay rhetoric that has been deployed so lavishing in the name of delaying marriage equality in the US. I think we can also be sure that the anti-gay pronouncements will become still more strident and divisive, but it already seems that those hateful voices are starting to recede in relevance and their influence is severely diminished. I suspect that as many of them appeal more and more to their god to smite down their opponents, more and more of their less fanatical supporters will start to see more and more clearly with whom they've been allied, and from whose bed they now need to get up with some alacrity.
Here, then, is a brief summary of election results that made us smile and that affirmed and advanced LGBT equality in this country in this election.
- In Maryland, Question 6 was defeated and legal marriage for same-sex couples comes to my home state. Question 6 was a "people's veto", asking voters whether to veto or approve legislation, enacted by the Maryland legislature and signed by our Governor, granting marriage equality to Maryland residents. I think it's worth noting that 2 years ago our attorney general, Doug Gansler, gave his official opinion that Maryland recognized legal marriages made elsewhere, and our courts agreed. This created the odd condition that Isaac's and my marriage, committed in Washington, DC, was recognized in the state where we live and yet we could not commit marriage in our state. That is rectified and we hope to be attending some of our friends' weddings real soon now!
- In Minnesota, votes were presented with a hateful anti-gay constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriages in their state, by "defining" marriage to be only for mixed-gender couples; that amendment was defeated. (News from the Minneapolis StarTribune.)
- The State of Washington had on its ballot "Referendum 74", an initiative to veto marriage-equality legislation; it appears to have failed (counting continues as I write this).
- In Maine, pro-equality folks had gotten on the ballot a popular initiative allowing same-sex partners to marry. This was done in response to the plebiscite veto of marriage-equality legislation in 2009. This victory is the first ever for a popular initiative to grant marriage equality.
- President Obama was re-elected, now noted, among other things, as the first president openly supportive of marriage equality to win re-election; supporting equality for LGBT people seems not to have been the absolute deal-killer so many marriage-equality foes predicted, and their god has so far smitten no one as they have fervently hoped.
- Tammy Baldwin won her bid to become Wisconsin's newest Senator, and now gets to wear the sash that says "First Openly Gay Senator", and the Senate becomes a little more representative of the actual US population. She also has solid, liberal ideas I endorse. (Her victory speech: how thrilling it is to hear someone say "…and I am well aware that I will be the first openly gay member".)
- Elizabeth Warren defeated her opponent Scott Brown, to become the newest Senator from Massachusetts. She is another candidate with liberal ideas I endorse, and she also makes the Senate look a little bit more like the US population.
- In 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court rendered a unanimous decision that prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying contravenes the Iowa State Constitution. Anti-gay forces in Iowa bitterly resented that move and expended a considerable amount of effort in 2010 defeating 3 of the judges who were facing retention votes. Having succeeded they were very sore winners and strutted around vowing retribution for any judge who should cross their personal religious convictions. They vowed to remove, in this election, Justice David Wiggins, who was facing a retention vote. This time, however, pro-equality folks were not caught off guard and the electorate of Iowa was not confused by fear-mongering, misleading anti-gay campaigning. Justice Wiggins has been retained, a result with national repercussions. (New from the Des Moines Register.)
- Sean Patrick Maloney, an openly gay man, will be heading to the House of Representatives to represent New York. He has, by the way, a partner of 20 years and three children.
- The mayor of Troy, MI, one Janice Daniels, who got lots of press in 2011 for her ridiculously anti-gay comments on several occasions–thus proving quite an embarrassment to Troy–has been successfully recalled.