State voters say ‘I do’ to marriage amendment
Civil unions may be banned; lawsuits could follow
Traditional values trumped Wisconsin’s progressive political traditions Tuesday as the state’s voters matched the national mood and approved a state constitutional amendment on marriage.[…]
“What we’re seeing is an affirmation that Wisconsinites understand that one-man, one-woman marriage is not up for redefinition,” said Julaine Appling, executive director of the Family Research Institute of Wisconsin, which supported the amendment.
She said she wasn’t surprised that Wisconsin joined the growing list of states that have passed marriage amendments. “Every time the people get to speak, they say, ‘Don’t mess with marriage,’ ” she said.
Traditional, that is, if you mean for the last couple of hundred years. Before that, marriage meant essentially that a man OWNED the woman called his wife, an arrangement heartily endorsed by that pack of fables called the Bible. You know, the book that celebrates slavery and capital punishment for adultry. Fine tradition, lady.
Mike Tate from Fair Wisconsin faces this terrible outcome with far more grace than I am here:
What I am most proud of most of all is how all of us dared to hope.
And we must not lose this hope and we cannot ignore what we have accomplished.
Because despite the results I still believe in a fair Wisconsin. I refuse to stop believing.
This debate was forced on us at a time and a place not of our choosing.
This fight against the amendment was never just about what happened today. All of us committed to a long-term struggle for equality and fairness for everyone. We cannot give up on Wisconsin, and there’s good reason not to.
We know for certain that many of the same people who voted for this amendment today are the very same people who will support equality for gay families within the next 5 or 10 years. That change might not have been on the timeline forced on us by our opponents, but we cannot ignore the fact that we have laid the foundation for long-term change in Wisconsin. Because of our work, more people in this state than ever before understand that gay families exist in this state and discrimination hurts them.
We may not have won the election, but there were so many victories along the way. We achieved many things that have drastically altered attitudes about gay people, gay families, and the way we do politics around this issue. We transformed a “gay rights” issue and made it a Wisconsin issue.
Our accomplishments are not in vain.
Wisconsin voters who succumbed to their own hate, ignorance, superstition and bigotry should be ashamed of themselves, but to feel shame for a wrong would require a level of self-awareness and openness that is plainly beyond them.
I’m terribly ashamed that I share citizenship in a state with so many people this idiotic. Sadly, we’re not alone.
