FOKUS AMERIKA Büro Washington Almut Wieland-Karimi 1023 15 th Street NW,# 801 Washington, DC 20005 USA Tel.:+1 202 408 5444 Fax:+1 202 408 5537 fesdc@fesdc.org www.fesdc.org Nr. 7/ 2008 Marriage Equality and the 2008 Presidential Election Lara Schwartz and Rebekah DeHaven 1 • Gay couples in the US fight for the right to marry to receive the same tax benefits, protections, and rights that are granted to heterosexual couples. Civil unions are – from their perspective – not an ade­quate alternative to marriage because they do not offer any of the more than 1,138 federal benefits and protections of marriage. • The conventional wisdom that court cases recognizing gay rights affected the 2004 U.S. elections does not hold up to scrutiny. • Ballot initiatives and proposed amendments to limit marriage are not expected to have influenced the 2008 election either. Pre-election polls showed that support for Barack Obama or John McCain did not waver as a result of the marriage amendment on the ballot in California, or the state’s Supreme Court decision from May 15, 2008 recognizing the right of lesbian and gay couples to marry. • California’s successful ballot initiative eliminating gay and lesbian couples’ right to marry is a major setback for the marriage equality movement. The narrowly approved constitutional amendment had overwhelming support among African-American and religious voters. • Support for legal recognition for gay partnerships has generally swelled in recent years. A majority of the public believes that lesbian and gay couples should have the right to marry or to form civil unions. Relationship recognition has also been embraced by many candidates running for office. Why Do Gays and Lesbians Fight for Mar­riage Equality? As a minority, gays and lesbians in America were inspired by the African-American civil rights movement, and began to organize in the 1960s to fight for equal social and political treatment. The success of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a key element for the sudden rise of the gay rights movement only several years later. It is rooted in the so-called“Stonewall Riots” in New York City’s Greenwich Village. In the summer of 1969, police started to raid un­licensed bars, among them The Stonewall Inn, and, while arresting and escorting employees and customers, faced an unexpectedly angry and vio­lent mob outside. The protests against the dis­crimination of gay bars lasted three nights and resulted in the establishment of gay rights groups all across the United States.