Politicians hit a hot button
Gay marriage debate has drawn elected officials into roles that may affect their futures - and shape opinion on the issue.
Massachusetts lawmakers will reconvene Thursday to continue work they left unfinished a month ago: deciding how to handle the sensitive question of gay marriage.
But even as the Bay State remains a key battleground, a host of officeholders from Chicago's mayor to a county clerk in northern New Mexico have mounted their own bully pulpits. The wrangling in Massachusetts, prompted by a 2003 court ruling, is no longer the centerpiece of this national debate. Instead, a series of officials both powerful and parochial have helped push gay marriage to the fore in multiple locales. Vowing to "go with the law" may for now be the politically safe course, yet it is becoming harder for elected leaders to avoid entering the debate.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, for one, was pilloried by advocates on both sides for not taking a clear stance. Recently he appeared to support gay marriage in a meeting with gay journalists, but has not taken a public position beyond supporting civil unions, despite lines of New Yorkers last week demanding same-sex marriage licenses, and the recent move by the mayor of New Paltz, N.Y., to marry 25 gay couples.
The example highlights how, if a few public figures have voluntarily taken a stand on gay marriage, others are being pressed by circumstance to play hands they would have just as soon kept close to their chests.
"Politicians have to make instant decisions, like day traders," says Chris Lehane, a Democratic consultant in San Francisco. But with a majority of Americans opposed to gay marriage, he says, "Who wants to take the stand right now?"
Like Bloomberg, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, also a Republican, wavered - and finally softened - his stance on gay marriage. In a recent appearance on the "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," he said it would be "fine with me" if courts or voters change state laws to make gay marriage legal.
Whether or not this is "waffling," such positions - often emphasizing "upholding the law" - may ultimately be the politically safest stance to take, as it represents the ambivalence that many Americans feel, say experts. Those pushing hardest on either side of the battle, could face harsher consequences.
"The most strident voices on both sides on this debate are going to be the losers," says Dan Schnur, a California Republican consultant. "The people who sound the most measured are going to do the best job of developing public support."
In San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom has issued thousands of marriage licenses in the past month. His popularity rating has surged in the city. "But once you cross over the Bay Bridge, it's a big world out there that might not be as receptive," says Mr. Schnur.
When the mayor of Elmira, an old industrial town of New York with a population of 30,000, saw events unfolding in California, he went right to the city clerk, saying under no circumstance would marriage licenses be granted to gay couples in his town. "I am unwavering in my belief that the bonds of matrimony are to be between a man and a woman," Mayor Stephen Hughes says.
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