Did New York's Marriage Vote Change Anything?

For all the hype surrounding New York’s vote to legalize same-sex marriage, a number of points stand out.

The first: gay marriage was already legal in New York, although it had to be performed in a jurisdiction where such marriages could legally be solemnized. This is because New York already recognized gay marriages performed out of state. However, this complicated the marriage process, while significantly increasing the cost for gay New Yorkers. This step also ensured that New York businesses and cities would miss out on the potential millions to be made from marriage ceremonies and tourism. Nonetheless, many gay couples did have marriages that were recognized as legal in the State of New York prior to this vote. Thus, the real debate in New York was about a) Would the state allow its businesses to benefit from the tourism and services related to gay marriage and b) whether the state would officially recognize gay marriage as the legal equivalent of heterosexual marriage.  Only this latter issue was controversial and says more about marriage opponents that any other fact. Some opponents sincerely believe that giving official sanction to already existing gay unions will undermine the family unit and lead to a breakdown of society. Yet in places where gay marriage is legal, this simply has not occurred.

The second point is that gay couples with legally valid marriages in New York will still be denied many legal rights because of the federal “Defense of Marriage Act”. For example, legally married gay couples do not enjoy spousal immunity in court.  Gay couples are denied benefits relating to social security that straight couples enjoy, cannot pay taxes jointly, could have their legally wed spouse refused permission to immigrate to join them in this country, and many other rights that straight couples take for granted.

The third point is the growing perception that NY’s vote is a harbinger of things to come. If so, this doesn’t bode well for the GOP. Increasingly, even conservatives like Focus on the Family’s Jim Daly admit that “We’ve probably lost” on the gay marriage issue.  Three polls released this spring show a majority of Americans now support gay marriage.  Alienating voters is simply not an effective strategy for building coalitions and growing a movement.  Most opposition to gay marriage, even within the GOP, is from older voters who won’t be around twenty years from now. As older voters opposed to gay rights stop voting, they are being replaced with younger voters who see gay rights as a matter of fairness and individual liberty.

Privately, some Republicans are beginning to consider that energy spent opposing equal rights is energy we could spend fighting for other important conservative issues like repealing old laws that do the constitution violence, dismantling federal programs that don’t work or that inject the federal government into areas best reserved to the States; and removing layers of bureaucracy and rules that stifle free markets and discourage innovation.  Increasingly, Republicans will have to ask ourselves if opposing gay rights is worth expending capital that could more effectively be deployed on winnable goals.