Going to the Chapel? Same-Sex Marriage Bans in the United States, 1973-2000
By Sarah A. Soule
Soule’s article investigates the development of state-level same-sex marriage bans instituted in United States beginning in 1973 and ending in 2000, taking into account the effects of political influence, interest groups and the ideas of values of everyday citizens. Soule argued that all of these factors must be taken into account when determining how same-sex marriage bans came into place.
The findings in Soule’s study were actually fairly surprising. I too, was surprised as she was by some of her results. I would have assumed that states with more pro-gay/lesbian legislation would be less likely to ban gay marriage. Wrong. I would have thought states with Democratic leaders would more lenient than those with largely Republican or Conservative leaders. The opinions of elite leaders also do not matter significantly when it comes to the development of same-sex marriage bans. I found these two findings to be quite surprising. It seems that liberal or democratic leaders are more sympathetic to same-sex marriage, but the findings in this study did not support the idea that their affiliation had any effect on the beliefs of the people when it came to voting on and passing these bans. While this was rather surprising, the fact that states that had recently repealed sodomy laws or passed protections for gays and lesbians against hate-crimes were nearly twice as likely to pass laws banning same sex marriage simply blew me away. At least at first. Then I read Soule’s explanation for why this is, and it actually made sense. With the passage of such legislation, it actually mobilized anti-gay marriage interest groups to ban together in order to prevent the slippery-slope that would lead to gay marriage.
This actually made a lot of sense after previously reading the 1998 Maine Referendum in which naming, blaming and claiming were used in order to conjure up enough support to pass the referendum banning gay marriage. That piece of legislation also went into effect shortly after hate-crime laws were passed, and as Soule pointed out, this occurred because the passage of such laws actually scared enough of the interest groups to ban together and develop a strategy to circumvent the what they determined to be a threat to their way of life.
By Sarah A. Soule
Soule’s article investigates the development of state-level same-sex marriage bans instituted in United States beginning in 1973 and ending in 2000, taking into account the effects of political influence, interest groups and the ideas of values of everyday citizens. Soule argued that all of these factors must be taken into account when determining how same-sex marriage bans came into place.
The findings in Soule’s study were actually fairly surprising. I too, was surprised as she was by some of her results. I would have assumed that states with more pro-gay/lesbian legislation would be less likely to ban gay marriage. Wrong. I would have thought states with Democratic leaders would more lenient than those with largely Republican or Conservative leaders. The opinions of elite leaders also do not matter significantly when it comes to the development of same-sex marriage bans. I found these two findings to be quite surprising. It seems that liberal or democratic leaders are more sympathetic to same-sex marriage, but the findings in this study did not support the idea that their affiliation had any effect on the beliefs of the people when it came to voting on and passing these bans. While this was rather surprising, the fact that states that had recently repealed sodomy laws or passed protections for gays and lesbians against hate-crimes were nearly twice as likely to pass laws banning same sex marriage simply blew me away. At least at first. Then I read Soule’s explanation for why this is, and it actually made sense. With the passage of such legislation, it actually mobilized anti-gay marriage interest groups to ban together in order to prevent the slippery-slope that would lead to gay marriage.
This actually made a lot of sense after previously reading the 1998 Maine Referendum in which naming, blaming and claiming were used in order to conjure up enough support to pass the referendum banning gay marriage. That piece of legislation also went into effect shortly after hate-crime laws were passed, and as Soule pointed out, this occurred because the passage of such laws actually scared enough of the interest groups to ban together and develop a strategy to circumvent the what they determined to be a threat to their way of life.
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Its so frustrating that any headway made for gay rights is just an opportunity for the right wing, anti-gay rights troops to mobilize and pass discriminatory laws. It seems like every step forward is accompanied by two steps backwards, and with only four states in the union allowing gay marriage sometimes the pace of our progression is just too slow. Sometimes it feels like the Christian right is winning this battle.
ReplyDeleteI also would think that states who elected Democratic leaders would be less likely to ban gay marriage. I was surprised by this, but at the same time not so much. Democratic just means not Republican, it doesn't mean liberal.
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