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The Wisconsin State Journal Bill Wineke Column: Amendment Doesn't Protect but Stirs Pot

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 March 2006, 09:00 CST

By Bill Wineke, The Wisconsin State Journal

Mar. 1--Supporters say the constitutional amendment we will be asked to evaluate in the November election will protect the institution of marriage against a supposed threat by gay lovers.

It does no such thing. For better or worse, the institution of marriage will be the same the day after the election as it is today -- whether the referendum on the proposal passes or fails. Same-sex marriage is currently illegal in Wisconsin. It will be next November, too.

Opponents of the amendment argue that its passage would threaten the rights of gay couples to receive "domestic partner" benefits they now enjoy in some places of employment.

That's possible, but not really probable. Employers that offer domestic-partner benefits do so for their own competitive reasons and, though those employers may have to defend their policies against bigoted lawsuits, compromises will almost surely be made should the marriage amendment be adopted.

The fact is that the amendment has very little to do with marriage. It has everything to do with the kind of state we want to maintain.

What the proposed amendment does is to proclaim that the residents of Wisconsin are so afraid of what voters in the future might decide that we in 2006 want to limit their options for all time (or, at least, until a new amendment could be adopted). The amendment asks us to vote for timidity.

It also asks the voters to issue a gratuitous insult to those gays and lesbians who seek to live in committed relationships. The clear intent of this amendment is to denigrate their efforts and their values.

But the amendment is even more insidious than that. Ask its supporters why we need a constitutional amendment to deal with a subject -- gay marriage -- that is already against the law and the reply you will get is that some future "activist judge" might overturn existing law.

So, the amendment not only seeks to make gays and lesbians a pariah class but it also seeks to build contempt for the judiciary.

And why are we doing this? You know why we're doing this. We're doing this because Republicans in the Legislature hope the debate will turn into a "wedge issue" that will work to the disadvantage of Democrats in the November election.

I think it's pretty fair to say that a majority of Wisconsin residents do not favor same-sex marriage at this time. The impression I get talking to many of those residents is that few of them want to discriminate against gays and lesbians in other areas. A surprising number of people who write me to express opposition to gay marriage also tell me about the warm relationships they have with same-sex couples in their communities.

In the end, I think the real evil of this amendment is that it seeks to lump these good people with the outright homophobic bigots and to separate them from their neighbors whose sexuality they might not understand but whose values they trust.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Wisconsin State Journal

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Source: The Wisconsin State Journal

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