Project Announcement: Revisiting the Battle for Same-Sex Marriage in America

The arguments from the right today are remarkably similar to 20 years ago

This is a special post to announce a major research/commentary project that is going to last over the next year. In wake of the modern assault on LGBT people, and a false narrative that has emerged about how the push for transgender rights doesn’t compare with the fight for same-sex marriage; I have decided to begin a series looking back at each state’s battle over same-sex marriage, and other LGBT issues, over the last few decades.

The goal here is to highlight how so much of the same fear-mongering rhetoric used by the right-wing during the gay marriage fight is similar to the fight over issues around LGBT representation in schools or the right to transition today. Despite the claim of some on the right that “look marriage is fine but this new ‘trend’ is too far” - the history shows any gay rights push has always led to the same straw-man arguments.

I’m 37, and I grew up as the gay marriage battles were waged. The number of times I have seen the rhetoric used and thought “oh I’ve heard this before” is infinite. The goal of this series will aim to highlight these similarities, but also use the election results to show were voter sentiment was and how it changed with time.

Last year, I did a retrospective look at Florida’s 2008 Marriage Amendment. The goal is to repeat this effort for any state that had a similar ballot measure.

I also intend to look at states were no referendum happened, but legislative fights emerged over the topic. The goal is to show, state by state, how these debates took place and the rhetoric and coalitions behind them all.

So, why I am doing this?

Older Posts from Younger Me

My politics is shaped by many factors, but being part of the LGBT community is an unmistakably important part. I came out as bisexual around 2002, then at 16 years old. Like many it was a “oh yeah of course moment.” This was at the “oh bisexuals are just fence-sitters” era of the gay movement, so it was maybe a couple months later I amended my classification to my friends as gay. I was convinced my attraction to women was just a cope. Then after a few months of resolving that I still found both sexes attractive, I went back to bisexual - and was still called a fence sitter for years. Today you would classify me as pansexual or omnisexual. In other words, your gender or cis/trans status isn’t a deal breaker with me.

Btw I tell that story because its a personal glimpse, but also it highlights the flaw in freaking out about different surveys about what % of any generation is gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. These classifications are subject to pressure and confusion - with social pressure from the right especially strong. No one is convincing your kid to be gay! But you might be convincing them to lie about themselves. The idea we see spikes in LGBT numbers should not be REMOTELY surprising considering a 16 year old today (well maybe a few years ago) had better support structures than one in 2002. Or 1992. Or 1972!

To be clear my parents were great, but I have countless friends who’s parents were not. People who had to sit in the closet until…. you guessed it… college! No it wasn’t our professors indoctrinating us - it was people not being around their cruel parents and actually able to live their lives.

I started at FSU in 2005, and my entire college career was spent with the fight over gay marriage going on. In fact, I met my longtime closest friend, Danielle, when she was arguing with a conservative classmate that was celebrating a marriage ban in Texas. It was a time of disappointments. Gay Marriage was not popular with the broader public yet, and you could barely get a decent chunk of Democratic Senators to endorse the idea.

As the early 2010s came around, I began to start an early blog/website. This original WordPress, which is filled with terrible grammar, some takes I cringe at now, and really bad maps, saw me cover LGBT fights several times. You can read them below. I will stress the maps absolutely suck, as they come from an era were I was still learning the process. Also every sentence in these old WordPress articles is Matthew before he was properly medicated, so I just blanket apologize for anything I might have said.

• A 2011 article looking at the fight over Civil Unions in Washington State

• In 2011, the situation over Gay Marriage in Iowa and a special election for a pivotal legislative seat

• A preview of the 2012 North Carolina Referendum

• In 2012, I wrote about the failure of conservative to pass a Same-Sex Marriage ban in Minnesota.

• A Spring 2012 Article looking at polls showing Obama was not hurt by endorsing Same-Sex Marriage

• Me laying out, and ranting, about the flurry of anti-gay laws being pushed in 2011-2012. This was especially driven by frustration and anger that LGBT rights was not a major campaign issue in 2012. This was def written at a fairly dark and frustrated moment.

At this time, there was no shortage of debate around same-sex marriage in the nation. Every year saw states deal with ballot measures or legislation to legalize or ban the practice. Looking back, I have maps and visuals I don’t even remember producing. For example, here is a vote that killed the effort to repeal same-sex marriage in New Hampshire. A GOP effort, which came after the 2010 midterms, saw many Republicans side with Democrats, keeping the recently-passed law on the books.

Meanwhile, states like Washington initially approved Civil Unions in 2009, but would then vote to legalize same-sex marriage a few years later, which was eventually backed by voters in 2012.

As the issue of same-sex marriage receded from public life, namely after the Supreme Court Decision in 2015, I began to focus on other political topics. Most of you know me namely for redistricting coverage, something I continue to talk about on this newsletter.

But I have never shied from this topic. Especially as Florida began a modern assault against the LGBT community, I wrote two issues on the state of play here. First, I looked at Florida’s Don’t Say Gay Law and the indictment of its author for fraud.

A week later, I talked about the issues around transgender youth, and the fear-mongering that has been waged to scare parents from supporting their children. At the time, a Democratic lawmaker had indicated his support for GOP efforts to ban gender-affirming care for minors.

The post-script to that story is that Rep Franklin reversed course, opposing these restrictions. You can read about there here.

Last year, I did a big breakdown of the 2008 Florida Marriage Referendum. My goal for the next year is to replicate the Florida article with the other states of the union. I intend to do articles on every state that.

Ok, so that is who I am. Why now?

Looming Shadows

Today marks the last day of Pride Month in 2023. It cannot be denied, this is a solemn year. Indeed its been several solemn years now. As American politics continues to decay, the far-right has done what it is always good at, find a scapegoat for societies problems.

Almost immediately following Donald Trump’s Presidential loss in 2020, and his failed coup attempt on January 6th, Republican politicians have looked for a distraction from their sins. After moving away from gay-bashing for a few years, they have return to form. Almost immediately in 2021, transgender discrimination bills flooded Republican state legislatures. It’s almost as if this was all part of a well-funded coordinated attack from far-right leaders to distract people from real economic issues.

These laws include

• Restricting mentions of LGBT people in schools, including preventing kids from referencing their same-sex parents or teachers referencing their partners

• Impossible to enforce bathroom rules that would open hostile accusations for anyone who looks too butch or fem

• Banning gender-affirming care for minors even with parental and medical support

• Banning gender-affirming care for adults on insurance or Medicaid, or just all together

• Declaring any gender-non-conforming clothing as drag and hence declaring it as sexual and banned

• Bans on teachers using preferred pronouns for students

And this is just some of the highlights.

And all this is leading to a modern Great Migration out of several states.

The courts have been having their hands full striking down restriction after restriction. Even the more conservative-tilted courts have trouble defending what are basically a modern iteration of the Nuremberg Laws.

This last few years have been incredible disconcerting for millions, including myself. I spent my early post-college years believing that we were largely beyond these fights. But now I find myself in my 30s looking at something that feels very familiar to the early 2000s. And I’m here just hoping its not actually the 1930s.

The goal of this project will be to expose how manufactured the current fights are. Oh gay people are groomers? Heard that before. Oh its tolerance but not acceptance? Still believe being gay or transgender is something that can be learned? What else is new.

The right wants you to think this is simply a campaign caused by “radical gender ideology” that has gone ‘too far.’ I know this is bullshit, but lets put it in some historic context. Lets look back at those earlier fights. In doing so we can also see how trends changed then as well, and how they might trend this time.

Plans Moving Forward

As I stated at the top of this post, this will be a year-long project. My intention is for July to be a period of research and plotting everything out, getting a good feel for what the schedule and order should look like broadly. I will be doing this while continuing to do not just my 9-5, but campaign work, and other election coverage. So I don’t want to guarantee “one article every week, or two weeks” - however my goal is to get a basic schedule laid out. Some states will be quicker looks than others, while some will be very involved projects.

Also, as this goes on, I’m going to need to ask for support in terms of comments, likes, or messages. This is emotionally going to be very taxing. Writing this was taxing. If I sense I am writing into a void, the drive to do this will die. I’m going to be reading alot of bad stuff, and its easy to decide to just turn my eyes away.

But that is not what I want to do. So I am moving forward with this. Expect another email in a few weeks with more concrete plans and a general idea of which states I will be starting with.

Until then…