“The litigation will begin.” That’s what gay activist Glen Maxey, who led a pathetic effort to stop a Texas state marriage amendment, said the day after voters approved the amendment 76% to 24%.
Maxey may want to rethink the matter. Lawsuits pursued by gay activists not only drove Texans to approve this amendment in the first place but gave Republicans a powerful issue that will continue reverberating until marriage is fully protected. In 2003, in Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court overturned Texas’s anti-sodomy law, declaring same-sex sodomy a constitutional right.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court then declared same-sex marriage a “right.” That inspired Ohioans to put a marriage amendment on last November’s ballot which drove new voters to the polls who, in turn, gave President Bush a victory in Ohio—without which he would not have been re-elected. So far, 19 states have passed traditional marriage amendments.
