Rhode Island is days away from becoming the 10th US state to allow same-sex marriage. The combination of coalition building and old-fashioned politics that got it passed is 'a recipe that could definitely be replicated in other states,' says Speaker of the House Gordon Fox, but opponents credit shifting national attitudes.
Rev. Betsy Garland (l.) and Rev. Dr. Byron Eddy Waterman, volunteers for Rhode Islanders United for Marriage, sign in at a 'weekend of action' on April 20, in Providence, R.I. Volunteers from around New England pitched in to help connect Rhode Islanders with their senators to express their support for marriage equality.
Bizuayehu Tesfaye / Courtesy of Human Rights Campaign / AP
EnlargePhone banks, an army of volunteers and alliances with organized labor, business leaders, and religious clergy propelled gay marriage to victory in Rhode Island this week, a savvy and coordinated strategy that relied on growing public support and old-fashioned bare-knuckle politics.
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Gay marriage legislation had failed every year in Rhode Island since 1997, leaving the heavily Catholic state the lone holdout in New England as the five other states changed their marriage laws. That's soon set to change. The state Senate voted Wednesday to allow gay marriage, and Gov. Lincoln Chafee plans to sign the bill into law following a final, procedural vote in the House next week.
The successful campaign could serve as a model for similar efforts in other states and reflects the increasingly sophisticated political strategy driving what just two decades ago was dismissed as a fringe issue with little public support, advocates and lawmakers alike say.
"This was a victory won by many people, because that's what it takes," House Speaker Gordon Fox, a Providence Democrat who is gay and led House efforts to pass gay marriage, said Thursday. "You bring everyone together, and you're stronger for it. It's a recipe that could definitely be replicated in other states."
Opponents, however, say their defeat in Rhode Island was less about dogged political strategy than it was the national conversation on gay marriage.
"It's a campaign that's been promoted by Hollywood, by the news media, by educational institutions," said Scott Spear, a spokesman for the National Organization for Marriage's Rhode Island chapter. "I think the local group was just on that wave. They didn't create it, they just rode it."
Rhode Island will be the 10th state to allow gay marriage when the legislation takes effect Aug. 1. Supporters in Delaware and Illinois are also hoping to follow this year. Efforts are also underway in other states, including New Jersey, Oregon and Minnesota.
Polls show support has surged since 1996, when Gallup found that 27 percent of Americans backed same-sex marriage. Now Gallup finds that 53 percent support giving gay and lesbian couples the right to marry.
The momentum is clear in Rhode Island. Two years ago, gay marriage legislation didn't even get a vote in the General Assembly. This year, it passed the House 51-19 and the Senate 26-12.
"We are close to the end of a journey that began in 1997," said Ray Sullivan, campaign director for Rhode Islanders United for Marriage, which led the push for the legislation. "When we began this campaign in January, many thought we'd never succeed in the Senate."
The strategy that ultimately proved successful began two years ago after the previous significant effort to pass gay marriage fell apart. House Speaker Gordon Fox, who is gay, abandoned his push for gay marriage after it became obvious the legislation wouldn't pass the Senate, where Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed was a formidable opponent. It was a bitter defeat, and advocates vowed to focus on electing candidates who supported gay marriage in the 2012 elections.
Rather than court one-issue candidates, marriage advocates formed ties with the AFL-CIO, environmental activists, and other progressive groups. By teaming up, the coalition was able to pool their support for candidates with wider voter appeal ? and who also happened to support gay marriage. The strategy worked, and in November several new gay marriage supporters were elected to the House and, more significantly, the state Senate.
Encouraged by those gains, Fox vowed to hold a House vote on gay marriage in the first month of this year's legislative session. The bill's easy passage so early in the session allowed supporters to focus their attention on the Senate.
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