SHAREMatt Foreman is Program Director with the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and oversees its work in the area of gay and lesbian rights. He recently explained the Fund’s belief that increased state support for marriage equality in the coming years will help create a national tipping point on the issue.
Since 2001, six states (and the District of Columbia) have extended the freedom to marry to same-sex couples, and 12 other states now recognize same-sex relationships to varying degrees. Together, these 18 jurisdictions cover 37 percent of the U.S. population. At the same time, there have been enormous setbacks as voters in 31 states have passed state constitutional amendments prohibiting the recognition of same-sex marriage – and, in many cases, any other relationship such as civil unions or domestic partnerships.
What does the Fund mean when it says it is working to achieve a tipping point on marriage equality?
We mean that by winning a sufficient number of legal, legislative and public-opinion advances over 15 to 20 years, the nation will come to a “tipping point” enabling full nation wide marriage rights through either Congressional action to intervene or a sweeping Loving v. Virginia-type Supreme Court decision.
Past experience showed that getting to such a point requires a significant number of states—usually more than half—moving in the tipping direction, strong gains in public opinion led by key political and religious leaders, and usually—but not always—compelling court precedents. By the time the Supreme Court rendered its Loving decision in 1967, for example, 25 of the 42 states that once had anti-miscegenation laws had already repealed them.
What do you see as the tipping point for marriage equality?
Getting there is going to require progress on a number of fronts - more states extending the freedom to marry to same sex couples, including some states overturning their anti-marriage constitutional amendments, more state and local nondiscrimination laws, securing some form of federal recognition of same sex couples and steady growth in public support for gay equality.
What will it take to get there?
In the short term, we need a focused public education strategy so that more states move into the marriage column in the next three to five years. We’re working with our partners in the Civil Marriage Collaborative and Freedom to Marry to do this. And because of California’s size, national influence and the high-profile loss around Proposition 8 in 2008, it is essential that our home state be in this mix. At the same time, we need to bolster efforts in other states to educate the public about the need for other basic protections for gay people, including measures to combat anti-gay discrimination, violence and bullying. Through the State Equality Fund we are furthering these goals in many other areas.
These are enormous tasks and we hope to enlist more foundations for the cause. Currently, less than 1% of all foundation dollars go to support gay-related services and advocacy and that picture really needs to change.
