n The ongoing battle over gay marriage in Massachusetts has been pushed to the back of many people’s minds. But the recent deceptive tactics of the anti-gay movement are bringing it back to the forefront.
Since gay marriage became legal in this state on May 17, 2004, over 6,600 same-sex couples have married. This has provided them with vital rights, such as the ability to visit a sick partner in the hospital, as well as essential protections for their children. The sky has not fallen: Neither heterosexual couples’ marriages nor society’s values have collapsed as a result of the commitments of these gay couples.
On Sept. 14, 2005, the state legislature voted 157-39 not to advance a constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. Yet some groups are still threatened by these families and are working to pass another amendment, this one even more extreme. The first proposed amendment would have reduced marriage to civil unions, which at least provide some rights, but this proposal would strip same-sex couples of all marital rights. This issue has already been thoroughly debated and inequality has been rejected by the Legislature. It is time to move on.
The most disturbing part of the prolongation of this dispute is the opposition’s new tactics. To get the 65,825 signatures needed for the petition, national religious group Focus on the Family is paying out-of-state signature-gatherers to get the job done. There have already been hundreds of reports of misleading language, signature forgery and other deceptive practices by these paid signature-gatherers and at least 151 of them have been verified as clear instances of trickery. One technique is the “bait-and-switch,” where the signature-gatherers lure in people exiting their local grocery stores with a sign advertising a petition to make wine sales available at the store. The shoppers are then asked to sign twice, not realizing they are signing the marriage petition the second time.
This is not happening only in front of Shaw’s and Stop ‘ Shops: One of the reported locations for signature gathering is Mugar Library.
MassEquality, a coalition defending equal marriage rights for same-sex couples in Massachusetts, is encouraging people to read both sides of a petition and to sign only once.
A citizens’ petition is not appropriate for civil rights matters. If African-American rights had been left up to the people, would the white majority have voted for equality? But since the reality is that we are faced with a citizens’ petition, it should be a clean, volunteer-driven effort. What we are witnessing is a dishonest assault on our democratic process.
Sarah Prager CAS ’08 Pubic relations chair Spectrum (BU’s gay-straight alliance)