Analysis
Tidal Wave of Support Carries Louisiana Marriage Amendment

By Jeni Horn
Talon News
September 21, 2004

Louisiana residents breathed a sigh of relief last week after being largely spared from the storm surge generated by Hurricane Ivan. But on Saturday, Democratic, Republican, and Independent voters joined forces to create their own political storm surge, a tsunami of support for Louisiana's Marriage Protection Amendment.

The amendment, which would place Louisiana's statutory definition of marriage into the state constitution and out of the hands of activist judges or public officials, was approved by a seldom seen margin of 78% to 22%. The effort to protect the Bayou State's definition of marriage was both as broad as Lake Pontchartrain and deep and powerful as the Mississippi, inundating every Louisiana parish by substantial margins.

Even in Orleans Parish within the city of New Orleans, known as a bastion of homosexual political influence and sexual decadence (two weekends prior the city hosted the Southern Decadence party sometimes called an unofficial 'Gay Mardi Gras' targeting homosexual revelers), the Marriage Protection Amendment won by just under 9.8 percentage points.

A Bipartisan, Multi-Cultural Marriage Coalition

Indeed, support for the marriage amendment by Democratic and African-American voters was decisive (Orleans Parish has a two-thirds black voting population). This continued a trend of strong Democratic voter support for such amendments first noted by press analysts in Missouri, which on August 3rd approved a weaker version of a marriage amendment by 71 to 29 percentage points. In Missouri, Democratic voters from rural and suburban areas gave the amendment an apparent slim overall majority among registered Democrats combining with strong Independent and Republican backing to produce an electoral landslide.

This phenomenon was magnified in Louisiana where the state is divided into 64 county-like areas called parishes. In Baton Rouge Parish, 68,167 Democratic votes were cast among the 300 precincts voting for mayor. But only 27,951 Parish votes were cast against the marriage amendment. Assuming that all of the anti-amendment votes were from Democrats (not likely) at least 59% of the Democrats voting supported the marriage amendment. And the "in-favor/opposed" ratios from other parishes in northern and rural areas were even more tilted in favor of the marriage amendment.

Leaders like Gov. Kathleen Blanco and her belief that "marriage is a sacrament between a man and woman" no doubt influenced some Democrats. The Catholic Democratic governor, elected in late 2002, was questioned about the marriage amendment at a mid-August news conference after attending the Democratic National Convention.

She told Louisiana reporters, "I don't usually say how I will vote, but I probably will [vote in favor]."

Blanco went on to note that the marriage amendment "is in keeping with the mores of Louisiana and my personal belief that marriage should be protected. I don't think there is a problem voting to underscore that."

Amendment Sponsor Grateful for Silent Majority

State Rep. Steve Scalise of Metairie, primary sponsor of the amendment, noted that the vote was "a huge mandate that the people want to protect marriage." Scalise noted, in a Sunday evening telephone interview, that "when Missouri's Marriage Amendment passed by 72%, my goal was of exceeding that margin. But our marriage amendment has been challenged with untruths from the opposition from the beginning." Scalise said that voters were being told that "this was about taking rights from" their fellow citizens.

In an earlier debate on the measure, Scalise had explained the reason for the amendment proposal.

"Our concern is that our definition [in existing law] is not strong enough, and courts can change that definition because there is no constitutional protection," Scalise said.

"The vote shows people are not going to sit on the side lines while the courts try to redefine marriage," Scalise added. "The vote shows that the Silent Majority has risen! Across faith and political lines the marriage issue is important."

In an early March statewide poll by a Baton Rouge polling company, Southern Media, and Opinion Research, 67 percent of registered voters surveyed said they supported a marriage amendment. A company spokesman said recent surveys done for political candidates produced similar results. Yet the actual vote in favor was 78%, an 11-point "bounce," apparently part of Scalise's silent majority.

Amendment voters were apparently not at all swayed by opponents argument, given significant media play, that unlike marriage amendments in some states, Louisiana's goes further and stops the state from recognizing any legal status for unmarried sexual partners that is ''substantially similar" to marriage or confers the "legal incidents thereof." States such as Michigan, Kentucky, and Ohio are proposing similar "stronger" amendments to secure their own definitions of marriage.

Text of Louisiana Marriage Amendment

"Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Louisiana, to enact Article XII, Section 15, relative to marriage; to require that marriage in the state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman; to provide that the legal incidents of marriage shall be conferred only upon such union; to prohibit the validation or recognition of the legal status of any union of unmarried individuals; to prohibit the recognition of a marriage contracted in another jurisdiction which is not the union of one man and one woman; to provide for submission of the proposed amendment to the electors and provide a ballot proposition; and to provide for related matters."

Ohio Implications

In Ohio, where petitions that would place a Marriage Protection Amendment are still being challenged in multiple courtrooms, reaction to the Louisiana vote was positive. One Columbus area politico, responding on background, indicated that he believed Ohio voters would certainly follow the lead of Missouri and Louisiana, given the chance. And a poll published in the Monday "Cleveland Plain Dealer" verified strong Buckeye voter support, with 64 percent of the 1,500 people surveyed favoring the marriage amendment, and with "strong support from all ages, races and geographic regions of Ohio."

Concerning the Louisiana Marriage amendment vote, Ohio Campaign to Protect Marriage (OCPM) state petition coordinator Barry Sheets said, "This is great news for the over half a million Ohioans who have already supported protecting our definition of marriage with a signature on one of our official petitions, as well as all other Ohioans who we hope will soon be allowed to vote their views and values concerning marriage."

Sheets also pointed to an OCPM news update indicating that Monday "the Ohio Franklin County Court of Appeals sided with 550,000 Ohio voters and allowed Issue 1, the Marriage Protection Amendment, to remain on the November ballot. The three-judge panel denied a request by homosexual activists to have all of the signatures on the petitions thrown out because of what they call a petition deficiency."

Referring to the "Louisiana-like" legal campaign to keep Ohio voters from voting on the marriage measure, OCPM Chairman Phil Burress added that he was certain opponents "are still hopeful that some activist judge will be sympathetic to their arguments and stop democracy in action. But right now the momentum is moving toward being on the ballot." Opponents are expected to appeal again, this time to the Ohio Supreme Court.

The developments in Louisiana and Ohio were set against a backdrop of what some have described as "continuing intransigence" by judges and officials who have refused to abide by or enforce state statutes defining marriage. Such occurrences have taken place in Massachusetts, New York, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington. and California. The latest cases include Washington State, where on September 7th a Thurston County judge became the second lower court judge to strike down Washington's Defense of Marriage Act, passed in 1998, and which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

In the small New York town of New Paltz, a judge allowed marriages of same-sex couples performed by the local Green Party mayor to not yet be invalidated in spite of a New York law not recognizing such unions. A town official planned to refile a legal complaint in response to the judge's decision.

Significant Impact of Moral Issues

But while courtroom debates over legal implications of marriage laws continued, the results in Louisiana lent credence to a Pew Research Poll of August 24, 2004. The nationwide survey of 1,512 adults, conducted August 5-10 by the Pew Research Center and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, indicated that "moral issues could have a significant impact" in this year's elections.

The report stated, "Fully 64% of voters say the issue of 'moral values' will be very important to their vote." And on the subject of same-sex "marriage," just 15% of swing voters who are in favor of legalizing gay marriage say it is "very important to them, compared with 36% of swing voters who oppose" creating same-sex marriage.

In the spring, before the legislature had voted on the marriage amendment measure, Louisiana Catholic Archbishop Alfred Hughes noted, "When the Catholic Church takes a stand on public policy, it's not because it's something the church teaches. ... It's because it sheds light on and reinforces the truth present in the world. It is the natural law that transcends any differences in religious teachings or the teachings of any group."

In Oregon, that state's Marriage Protection Amendment, known as Measure 36, has gained similar support. The Oregon Catholic Conference, representing the state's largest religious group, 425,000 Catholics, endorsed Measure 36 this month. So did the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with about 140,000 Oregon members.

The Defense of Marriage Coalition, the group that put the measure on the ballot with a record number of signatures, said that it has the support of 2,000 churches representing more than 20 denominations across Oregon. Still, homosexual activist and liberal groups are targeting the state, reportedly believing they can defeat the marriage measure outright.

And among other religious voters there is broad consensus. Surveys show large majorities of religious African Americans also support the current definition of marriage, for example, 72% of religious African Americans in the Pew Research survey, and 71% of Latino Protestants.

The largest groups of black pastors in states like Kentucky, where a marriage amendment is on the November 2 ballot, have voted formally to support it. And in Louisiana, Rep. Scalise received, and welcomed, similar support.

"I had 50% of the black caucus vote to support my [marriage amendment] bill," Scalise said. "The Black Caucus supported this bill because the black ministers were here and told them that the issue of marriage was the bedrock of their faith."

And in Ohio, where a marriage amendment is seen as increasingly likely to be voted on, the July 22 "Columbus Post" reported that black pastors had joined with other central Ohio groups in issuing a formal statement of support for the Marriage Protection Amendment.

"The Post" stated, "Bishop Fred Marshall, the spokesperson for the Columbus Baptist Pastors' Conference and the Baptist Ministerial Alliance of Columbus and Vicinity, says that the issue is not just about Christianity, but the health of society. 'We have joined together to recognize a common concern... This is not limited to Christians,' Marshall said. 'Because we are a democracy, the people of Ohio have a right and responsibility to let their voices be known on issues like this. Not letting people have their say is a slap in the face to democracy.'"

Louisiana Marriage Amendment Foes Will File Legal Challenges

Back in the Bayou State, some of those who have advocated for a revision of marriage's definition beyond one man and one woman promised more court challenges to keep Louisiana voter's decision from taking effect. They had mounted a full court press in the courts prior to the vote, filing as many as three simultaneous lawsuits in multiple jurisdictions seeking to derail a public vote.

Tensions were high as opponents scrambled to prevent a public consideration of the marriage issue. According to Louisiana news reports, "one lawyer representing the Forum for Equality Political Action Committee," upset at accurately being addressed as a homosexual, "lost his temper in court" and "charged at" opposing counsel. According to news accounts, his "voice rose and his face turned red, and he approached, pointed his finger at" the other attorney.

"I am not a homosexual," he angrily said, indicating that he only wanted to be called a gay man.

Ultimately the rulings from both the courts of appeal hearing the cases and from the Louisiana Supreme Court turned aside the pre-election challenges. But the amendment critics indicated that they had a number of avenues of appeal, including the matter of the late delivery of voting machine in 59 Orleans Parish precincts. Ultimately the courts will review the decision of Louisiana's voters, though many seemed grateful that the voters at least had the chance to speak.

One former judge seemed pleased that the court challenges, typical of those wishing to change state marriage definitions without voter consideration, had so far failed.

"The Times Picayune" reported that Darrell White, a retired state judge, stated, "It's gratifying to see the people of Louisiana had an opportunity, as distinguished from judges, having the final say on the issue of whether traditional marriage will continue to be the fundamental institution in our state."