Tipping point? Not likely!

The article below may in fact be good news for states that do not have constitutional amendments making same-sex marriage illegal, but we have a lot of work to go in the states that have constitutional amendments. Those amendments must be repealed by "the people" who voted in favor of them.

April’s triple triumph on the front lines of the U.S. same-sex marriage wars — Vermont lawmakers approved marriage on April 7, the same day D.C. City Council voted to recognize marriages performed elsewhere, and the Iowa Supreme Court on April 3 ruled in favor of gays — have many on both sides of the ideological divide wondering if the issue is on the cusp of a tipping point.

Gay activists are saying it’s possible, even likely, that the issue is far enough along to have reached an unquantifiable inevitability now that same-sex marriage is legal in four states (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and Iowa). But last year’s bitter loss in California (Proposition 8’s approval on the November ballot outlawed same-sex marriage there, which had been legal since a state Supreme Court ruling in May) and the 29 state constitutional amendments restricting marriage to one man and one woman make it clear gay activists are far from home free.

Freedom to Marry’s Evan Wolfson, who’s gay, said, “We have tremendous wind in our sails” and “each success moves us further toward our goals.”

Richard Socarides, a gay New York attorney who was a White House adviser under President Bill Clinton, said, “there’s certainly more momentum than there’s ever been.”

Mike Jones, a gay blogger and communications director for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, said the movement is “definitely heading toward a point where there will be unstoppable momentum.”

The first rule in politics is to never underestimate your opponent. We have yet another one; a very powerful one (in additional to the American Family Association, Liberty Counsel, etc.) the National Organization for Marriage.

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The National Organization for Marriage aired its ad April 8 — the day after the Vermont Legislature legalized same-sex marriage and less than one week after the Iowa Supreme Court granted marriage rights to gay couples in its ruling.

Amid storm clouds and rumbling thunder, actors in the commercial say that supporters of same-sex marriage are advancing rights for gay couples in ways that hurt others. One woman says she’s a doctor who must choose between her faith and her profession; another says she’s helpless to stop Massachusetts public schools from teaching lessons condoning same-sex marriage; and one man says his New Jersey church group was punished for opposing gay nuptials.

The organization claims it spent $1.5 million on the commercial.

Maggie Gallagher, NOM’s president, told the Blade the ad was “more successful” than they “imagined or hoped.” She said the commercial has inspired a significant response from “small donors and the activist base.”

Gallagher said NOM released its commercial in response to the same-sex marriage developments in Vermont and Iowa.

“The main message point I saw being unleashed in the media is that this somehow — right after our great victories in California, Arizona and Florida — that this court decision and the state of Vermont meant the marriage fight was over,” she said. “And we thought it was important to get out and communicate that … Americans do care about the marriage issue and we’re not giving up on this.”

Bottom line, don't get your hopes up. We need volunteers to remain on guarded and ready to respond now more than ever!