Last year the Supreme Court of the USA ruled that the federal government should and must recognise same-sex marriages. Since then twenty judges around the nation have struck down state bans on gay marriage.
Some opponents of gay marriage now expect a Supreme Court ruling to legalise same-sex unions right across the US while others will never give up the fight. Thousands are expected on the upcoming March for Marriage in Washington, DC.
The National Organization for Marriage is behind the march and rather optimistically speaks of a ‘road to victory’ on its website. ‘A competition is won by those who take the field, not by those who sit on the sidelines,’ so said Brian Brown, the President of the NOM. Sounding not unlike a Roman general, he added: ‘Friends, we need to take the field for marriage — and fight to win!’
NOM supporters want the Supreme Court to assure the right of states to establish their own marriage laws, rather than instituting a nationwide same-sex marriage ban. If the Supreme Court were to do the opposite – legalie gay marriage nationwide – Brown has said that he and the NOM ‘won’t go away’.
Predictably for a conservative, he has compared the anti-gay marriage struggle to the anti-abortion movement since the Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade which legalised abortion in every state in the Union.
What is most worrying about NOM is its affiliations with outright bigots – both religious and secular. A number of gay rights advocates and liberal politicians penned an open letter in which they castigated the March on Washington for scheduling speakers who ‘denigrate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens.’
