Fearing that Massachusetts could be the first gay
marriage domino to fall, conservative groups around the country are
setting their sights on the Bay State for a major political stand against
same-sex marriage here.
``Massachusetts is our Iwo Jima. For us, it's our last stand. We're
going to raise the flag,'' said the Rev. Louis Sheldon, chairman of the
Traditional Values Coalition, based in Washington, D.C.
Sheldon said the Supreme Judicial Court's landmark finding that gays
and lesbians have the right to wed could cast the institution of marriage
into turmoil nationally. His group is asking its members across the
country to call and write Massachusetts legislators and urge them to get
behind an effort to amend the state's constitution to ban same-sex
marriage.
``I feel pretty certain saying you will see groups that are concerned
about this coming to Massachusetts in the coming weeks,'' said Tony
Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council in
Washington, D.C.
One of the groups turning its attention to Massachusetts is the
Christian Coalition, a heavy-hitting national organization of religious
conservatives.
``Our people are really being galvanized over this ruling,'' said Jim
Backlin, the coalition's director of legislative affairs. ``We'll be
heavily involved in the grass-roots effort to influence state legislators
in Massachusetts to pass a Defense of Marriage Act.''
Ronald Crews, president of the conservative Massachusetts Family
Institute, said his phone has been ringing off the hook since the SJC
ruling was announced.
``People across the country have been calling us saying, `I'm outraged
by this decision, what can I do?' '' said Crews, who is working with other
local conservative groups to plan a major rally.
The Christian Coalition and the Family Research Council, along with
dozens of smaller groups, already have begun lobbying state lawmakers to
push a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages -
which would trump the SJC ruling, but couldn't take effect until 2006.
Valerie Fein-Zachary of the local Freedom to Marry Coalition said her
group will continue to oppose any law or constitutional amendment banning
gay marriage, but she sees no reason to try to match the intense lobbying
effort being mounted by conservatives.
``We fully expect the Legislature to be in compliance with the court
ruling,'' Fein-Zachary said, adding, ``I would say that people from
outside of Massachusetts have no business trying to influence the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision.'' Opponents of the
decision, however, argue that gay marriage in Massachusetts would set a
dangerous precedent and could even open a rift between states.
