SAN FRANCISCO (BP)–With “party A” and “party B” replacing the traditional “bride” and “groom” on the licenses, California June 16 officially became the second state in the nation to allow homosexual couples to “marry.”
The California Supreme Court’s controversial 4-3 ruling took effect at 5 p.m. local time, and some county clerk offices, including those in Sonoma County and San Francisco, stayed open late to allow same-sex couples to get “married” without waiting until the next day.
Salvador Valles and Dean Jansen traveled from New York City to California to pick up a marriage license. Unlike Massachusetts — the only other state to allow “gay marriage” — California has no residency requirements, so any couple can fly in and get “married” even if their home state won’t recognize the license.
“I can’t wait to introduce him to others as my husband,” Jansen said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The ceremonies set up a dramatic vote in November on a proposed constitutional marriage amendment which would reverse the court’s ruling and protect the natural definition of marriage. At least three public opinion polls have been conducted on the amendment since the court’s decision was issued, and each one has showed a different result. One showed a majority supporting the amendment, a second one showed a majority opposing it and a third one — released June 9 by SurveyUSA — showed a plurality, 44 percent, supporting it. Thirty-eight percent were opposed and 18 percent undecided. However, that same SurveyUSA poll showed 56 percent supporting “gay marriage” in California — even though they supposedly favor the amendment. It was a conflict within the poll that even the pollsters couldn’t explain. The survey interviewed 500 adults.
The fact that the licenses are being issued before voters will consider the amendment can both help and hurt the proposal’s chances, said Chris Clark, pastor of East Clairemont Southern Baptist Church in San Diego.
“The other side is going to portray this as being something that is harmless — that it did not affect anybody else,” he told Baptist Press. “They’ll say, ‘Look, all these loving couples were able to get married and civilization as we know it did not end.'”
But amendment supporters, Clark said, will counter by arguing that the court’s decision invalidated a law known as Proposition 22 that had been approved by 61 percent of voters in 2000. The amendment, in essence, would write the language of Proposition 22 into the state constitution.
“What I think a lot of people are going to see is the fact that their vote did not count as a direct result of four people who decided to make new law where there was no law and who ruled the vote of the people unconstitutional,” Clark said.
If California is like Massachusetts, then it will initially see a large influx of “gay marriages” followed by a steep decline. In Massachusetts, 6,121 couples “married” in the final seven and a half months of 2004 when it was legalized. In 2005, that number dropped to 2,060, and in 2006 to 1,442, The New York Times reported. In the first eight months of 2007, only 867 couples were “married.” Two-thirds of the licenses were issued to lesbian couples.
Meanwhile, a new poll by 1,505 adults by the Pew Research Center shows that “gay marriage” could be a prominent issue in the election and even rival its importance to voters when compared to 2004. The poll, conducted in May, showed that 49 percent of white evangelicals say the issue will be very important to their voting decisions — the same percentage as was recorded in October 2004. For Catholics, the percentage is 25 percent, up from 19 percent in October 2004. Forty-one percent of Republicans, an increase from 39 percent in ’04, say it will be very important. For Democrats (22 percent compared to 27 percent in ’04) and independents (23 percent compared to 29 percent in ’04), the percentages fell.
Clark said the reaction to the proposed amendment has been “tremendous.” Next Wednesday he and other pastors are hosting a conference call with pastors across the state to drum up support for the proposal. Approximately 60 churches and schools are participating as hosts for the conference call; pastors from surrounding areas are invited to come to one of the host locations.
In addition to Clark, pastors who are helping organize the call or will speak during the call are David Jeremiah, senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, Calif.; Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Church in La Mesa, Calif.; Miles McPherson, pastor of the Rock Church in San Diego; Mike MacIntosh, pastor of Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego; and Timothy Winters, pastor of Bayview Baptist Church in San Diego.
The conference call, Clark said, will concentrate on two goals: getting people registered and getting them out to vote.
“There is a groundswell of support and we just need to keep this momentum going,” he said.
Additionally, Clark and those with Protect Marriage.com — the organization behind the amendment — are urging people from out of state to donate financially to the effort. (Visit ProtectMarraige.com and click on “contribute.” Contributions are not tax-deductible.)
“We are pushing that in a big way,” Clark said. “We are going to be outspent anywhere from 3 to 1 to 5 to 1. We’re needing several million dollars to get the word out about the amendment.”
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Michael Foust is an assistant editor of Baptist Press.
