New York Gay Marriages May Energize Opposition in Other States

Margaret Newkirk Bloomberg.com 06/29/2011 17:33

The New York Senate’s vote last week to legalize same-sex marriage won’t prompt similar laws in other states and may touch off a national backlash, according to gay- rights advocates across the U.S.

Georgia state Representative Karla Drenner, a Democrat from the Atlanta area, said she was both overjoyed by the New York vote and afraid that it will galvanize gay-rights foes.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Drenner, who is gay, said in a telephone interview. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this New York victory creates a new rhetoric at the national level, and not a good rhetoric. This is going to be one of those issues that is going to fire up the social conservative base in 2012.”

Same-sex marriage advocates from Georgia to California interviewed by Bloomberg News said that the country’s third- most-populous state’s legalization of gay marriage was a landmark victory. Many also said it wouldn’t change the law where they live -- and opponents agreed.

Since the New York vote, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann repeated her call to add a gay marriage ban to the U.S. Constitution, according to a transcript of a Fox News interview. A state measure that would do the same is on the ballot next year in Bachmann’s home state of Minnesota.