Gay-rights advocates call a deluge of civil-union bills a shift in strategy, but marriage defenders say the institution is still under attack.
Sen. Edward Murray, an openly gay lawmaker in Washington state, told The Associated Press that for years activists focused solely on redefining marriage – but this year things have changed. Activists now claim same-sex couples simply want rights and benefits.
"It's very new," he said. "If I had suggested this strategy a year or two ago, I would have been run out of my district."
According to Carrie Evans, former director of the Human Rights Campaign, the focus is on incremental gains.
"I think with legislators, just like the public, people don't change their minds on marriage equality… overnight," she said.
Read the rest of this article.Gay activists know that legalizing civil unions will quickly lead to the legal silencing of dissent, mandatory teaching in public schools that 'gay is good' and laws forcing approval of homosexuality. As Stanley Kurtz so succinctly argues in his article "Beyond Gay Marriage", most homosexuals do not actually want to get married. Gay activists believe marriage is an old, tired, obsolete institution that has run its course. What they really want is to destroy marriage as the societal ideal.
