In the last few hours, the New York State Legislature denied marriage to gays by a significant margin. Now that state joins Maine, California and other states that will not allow gay persons to marry.
A couple of weeks ago I heard Tony Kushner speak in Chicago. In his hard-hitting and provocative speech, he noted that it is a grossly unfair burden to expect gays to go through fifty different legislative and referendum procedures to secure the right to marry. It is unfair and places gays on a constant roller-coaster in which, if they do secure marriage rights at one level of government, they can be withdrawn. California is a good case study.
Kushner did not spell out an alternative. Maybe this alternative lies in the courts and the congress. Maybe gay rights advocates should step back and cast this struggle from a new perspective. There must be more than one strategy to achieve gay marriage.
I think that it is time for Human Rights Campaign and Lambda and the other organizations claiming to represent gays and lesbians to address this critique. Why does this issue depend upon one state-by-state strategy only? I think Kushner is right.
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