The debate over same-sex marriage has sounded different in the nation’s capital, with references to interracial marriage and Martin Luther King Jr.
WASHINGTON – Gay and lesbian couples will soon be able to marry in Washington, but the debate over same-sex marriage has sounded different here, with references to interracial marriage and Martin Luther King.
Over the past year, both sides have courted the support of Washington’s Black community, a majority of the city’s 600,000 residents and one traditionally perceived as opposed to same-sex marriage.
"In D.C., outreach to African Americans wasn’t part of the campaign. It was the campaign," said Michael Crawford, the leader of a pro-same-sex union group, D.C. For Marriage.
Crawford, who is Black, said other residents weren’t ignored, but his group and others weighed the city’s racial makeup in planning their message. That made the debate here different than in other places that have considered gay marriage – places like California, where about 7 percent of residents are Black, or Maine, where 1 percent are. Voters in both states struck down gay marriage laws.
In Washington, gay couples are expected to be able to apply for marriage licenses beginning Wednesday – but opponents are still challenging it in court.
To speak to voters in D.C., supporters drew parallels to Martin Luther King Jr.’s advocacy for equal rights. They said same-sex marriage bans would one day seem as ridiculous as the interracial marriage bans overturned by the Supreme Court in 1967. Opponents, meanwhile, ran an anti-gay marriage ad on the radio station of Howard University, a historically black college. And both sides worked hard to curry favor with Black leaders and churches.
"What’s been different here is how aggressively they’ve come after religious leaders, how aggressively they have talked up the race issue, or I should say the civil rights issue," said
Bishop Harry Jackson, a black pastor who has led opposition to the measure.
Getting Black voters’ support for gay marriage wasn’t necessarily easy. A widely used exit poll conducted for The Associated Press during the 2008 election found 70 percent of Black California voters approved of a measure banning gay marriage, compared with 49 percent of white voters. A poll in Florida, where residents voted on a similar issue that year, had comparable support from Black voters, who make up about 16 percent of the state’s population.
For now, the debate has quieted, though opponents are still pushing for the issue to go before voters. If it does, the same appeals to Black residents will likely begin again.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press
About Post Author
