A Tale of Two States
Coming back to roost from a season of
volunteerism for pro-same-sex marriage campaigns, I honestly thought I would be
writing a very different column. The
greater struggle for marriage and equality should have been in Minnesota, not
in Illinois. After all, Minnesota had
Michelle Bachmann and a large Tea Party Caucus with which to contend.
What happened?
I propose that there are three key
differences between the Minnesota experience and that in Illinois. Minnesota did not have prior “civil unions”
on which to fall back, Minnesota’s pro-same-sex marriage coalition was broad
and deep, and Minnesota’s LGBTQ community is not irrevocably tied to the Democratic
Party (DFL). In fact, Libertarians and Independents
formed a significant block of pro-same-sex marriage supporters in Minnesota.
Last fall, on-line interactions between
bloggist Will Kohler and IL State Representative Rita Mayfield indicate key
differences between Illinois’ challenge and Minnesota’s movement from
struggling to defeat an anti-gay amendment to passing full marriage equality. Mayfield’s now famous comment is… “A
civil union between two men or two women is supposed to be fundamentally the
same as a civil union between a man and a women[sic]. What am I missing?”
 |
| IL Rep Rita Mayfield (D) |
Mayfield seemingly felt that gays and lesbians already had it all. She was barraged by religious lobbyists while
according to her comments, no one from her district had yet bothered to sit
down with her to discuss how the differences between same-sex unions and
marriage-equality impact their personal lives as her constituents.
In Minnesota, I watched the floor debate in Sen Jim Carlson’s office
with a couple, Jim and Steve, who had personally taken the time to confront
Carlson with the issue and to educate him with the real-life consequences of not
being able to marry to his constituents.
Carlson admits that they changed his mind.
To many outside of the LGBTQ community, civil unions for gays seem like
a huge “gift” to a new-fangled and still too-little understood minority
group.
