Prop 107 fails but same-sex marriage is still illegal in Arizona.
November 16th, 2006
To everyone’s surprise and many people’s delight, Arizona’s Prop 107, the so-called “marriage” amendment continues to go down with an ever-widening margin. Late yesterday, the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP), Prop 107’s chief sponsor, conceded defeat, but not before blaming their opponents for pointing out how their amendment would have affected straight unmarried couples:
Our opponents were able to focus the debate on what Proposition 107 was not about: benefits for unmarried individuals. Our opponents were able to scare seniors into believing they would lose their social security benefits if prop 107 passed. Our coalition simply did not have the funds to respond to opponents’ attacks and distortions about the true intent of Prop 107.
As I pointed out yesterday, the 2000 census showed that there were 105,864 households with opposite-sex unmarried partners in Arizona, but only 12,332 same-sex unmarried partners. This suggests that opposite-sex unmarried couples outnumbered same-sex unmarried couples by a ratio of more than 8.5 to 1.
CAP may have intended for the debate to center around gay couples, but the simple fact of the matter is that there are far more straight couples in Arizona that stood to lose from Prop 107 than gay couples. CAP was never honest about that fact, and its not wonder. CAP and its supporters are just as hostile to straight couples “living in sin” as they are to gay couples.
In Michigan, Ohio, and other states, domestic partners — gay and straight — of state and local governments and universities are losing their health insurance. In Ohio, unmarried couples — gay and straight — stand to lose domestic violence protections with the active encouragement of their marriage amendment supporters. Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values (CCV) filed this brief with the state Supreme Court demanding that the court strike down Ohio’s domestic violence laws:
The Marriage Amendment does not proscribe the extension of benefits to persons in marriage-mimicking relationships. Rather, it proscribes the very legal recognition of the relationships in the first place, for any purpose.
The fact remains that many more straight couples are harmed by these amendments than gay couples. CAP refused to acknowledge that, and still clings to the fantasy that this amendment was all about gay marriage. It was not. Same-sex marriage was illegal before election day and it is still illegal today. The only thing that would have changed had Prop 107 passed would be that thousands of families would have woken Wednesday morning to find their health insurance and other protections under assault. And the chances are more than 8.5 to one that that family would have been headed by a heterosexual couple. These are the plain and simple facts that CAP have refused to address. But they will have to if they try to put a similar measure on the ballot in two years.
Were Arizona’s Same-Sex Marriage Ban Opponents Deceptive?
Arizona Is Still Going Strong
De-Gaying The Marriage Debate?
Appraising Arizona
Gay Marriage Is Still Illegal In Arizona
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