Black Legislators Stall Marriage Amendment in Georgia

By ANDREW JACOBS

March 3, 2004

New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/03/national/03GEOR.html?
ex=1079338391&ei=1&en=8f8d1cdb2214bbc6

ATLANTA, March 2 - Georgia’s headlong rush to block gay
marriages through a constitutional amendment has been
stalled, for the moment, by an unlikely group of
legislators: black members of the House of
Representatives, many of them church deacons and
ministers who already support the state’s laws banning
same-sex marriage.

Last week, they provided 39 of 50 no votes and
abstentions that helped the measure fall 3 votes short
of the 120 needed for passage.

The bill, which requires a two-thirds majority to
appear on the ballot this November, may be reintroduced
in the Democratic-controlled House as early as
Thursday. The measure has already passed the Senate,
which is dominated by Republicans, despite no votes
from all 10 black members.

"In my 30 years in the legislature, I don’t think I’ve
seen a vote so close and so impassioned," said
Representative Calvin Smyre, chairman of the House
Rules Committee, who is black.

The battle over gay marriage here has put African-
American lawmakers in a difficult position with voters
and placed them in stark contrast to their white
Democratic colleagues, most of whom have joined
Republicans in calling for a constitutional bulwark
against same-sex marriage.

Many constituents, including their hometown church
leaders, have been clamoring for them to approve the
measure, but the state’s Legislative Black Caucus has
largely come to see it as denigrating a minority while
playing into the hands of conservative Republicans
seeking to spark a large turnout of their base in
November.

"I’m a pastor and I don’t support gay marriage, but I
resent people playing political football with our
religious beliefs," said Representative Ron Sailor Jr.,
a Democrat whose suburban Atlanta district contains
some of the state’s largest and most conservative black
churches.

As nearly two dozen states move to ban same-sex
marriage through constitutional amendments, the
political drama in Georgia offers a window into how
similar battles might play out. In the Mississippi
House of Representatives, which passed a similar bill
on Monday, only 17 legislators voted against the
measure, all of them black.

"At the national level and in states like Massachusetts
and Georgia, African-American leaders have been pretty
clear in their opposition to these kinds of
constitutional amendments," said Seth Kilbourn,
national field director for the Human Rights Campaign,
a gay rights group in Washington. "No matter how they
feel about marriage for same-sex couples, they don’t
want to write into our governing documents laws that
treat one group of people different from another.
They’ve seen this country go down that road before."

In Georgia, a deeply religious and socially
conservative state that passed a law banning same-sex
marriage in 1996, the opposition of so many black
lawmakers was not expected. Sadie Fields, chairman of
the Christian Coalition of Georgia, said she was
furious when several black representatives switched
sides at the last minute on Thursday night.

"I think some of these legislators are going to have a
lot to answer for come this fall," Ms. Fields said. "If
I was African-American, I would be furious that
homosexuals are comparing what they want to do with
civil rights."

In interviews with more than a dozen black legislators,
most were reluctant to characterize their position as a
stand against discrimination. Like many of those who
oppose a constitutional ban, Representative Earnest
Williams of Stone Mountain said comparisons between the
struggle for black civil rights and the pursuit of gay
marriage were disingenuous.

"You just can’t equate sexual orientation to racial
discrimination," Mr. Williams said. "You can make a
choice of who you want in your bedroom, but you can’t
choose your skin color."

Even so, some who oppose gay marriage - and opposition
on that point was nearly unanimous - said the idea of
amending the Constitution to restrict the aspirations
of a group of people was troubling. Representative
Georganna Sinkfield of Atlanta cited previous state
laws that upheld slavery, curtailed voting rights and
outlawed marriage between blacks and whites.

"What I see in this is hate," Ms. Sinkfield said,
standing outside the ornate House chambers between
votes. "I’m a Christian, but if we put this in the
Constitution, what’s next? People with dark hair?
You’re opening the floodgates for people to promote
their own prejudice."

For the most part, black elected officials, at least
publicly, have portrayed their opposition as a matter
of political pragmatism. Conservative Republicans, they
say, are using the issue as a wedge between Democrats
and rural whites, and as a way to send religious
conservatives to the voting booths in November.

"This whole thing is designed to whip up a frenzy to
get people to the polls," said Senator Ed Harbison,
chairman of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus. "We
have to see this for what it really is."

In their lobbying campaign, caucus leaders have told
potential defectors that a yes vote on the amendment
could lead to a Republican takeover of the House and
strip black Georgians of their voice in the General
Assembly. Once firmly Democratic, both the Senate and
the governorship were lost to the Republicans two years
ago. Every seat in the House and Senate is up for
election in November.

"If we’re a minority in the House, we will have no
power. Zero," said Representative Tyrone Brooks, who
heads the Georgia Association of Black Elected
Officials. "This is not about your personal beliefs.
It’s about a political ballgame the Republicans kicked
off."

Not all black lawmakers are against an amendment. There
was one yes vote on Thursday, and eight lawmakers
stayed away from the chambers that evening. In recent
days, as the pressure has mounted, a handful of
African-Americans have begun to waver.

Representative Sharon Beasley-Teague of Atlanta said
she did not see the need for an amendment but the
barrage of protests, including a large demonstration at
the Capitol on Monday, helped change her mind.

"You can’t even leave a message at my office, the voice
mail is so jammed with people saying it’s Adam and Eve,
not Adam and Steve," she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/03/national/03GEOR.html?
ex=1079338391&ei=1&en=8f8d1cdb2214bbc6