Gay Marriage Opponents Promise To Renew Efforts After Loss In New York

The New York Times reports:

Less than 24 hours after the New York Senate’s vote, made possible by four Republican defections, a leading anti-gay-marriage group started sending out defiant pleas for money.

“This fight is far from over,” the group, the National Organization for Marriage, told supporters as it pledged to spend $2 million in 2012 to defeat New York’s four “turncoat senators” who “betrayed marriage.”

The organization, which says it expects to raise $20 million this year from Roman Catholic and evangelical Christian groups as well as individual donors, is gearing up for intense battles over same-sex marriage in several other states; so far, voters in 29 states have adopted constitutional amendments banning it.

Since the vote, the Family Research Council, one of the largest conservative Christian advocacy groups, started hearing from more followers who wanted to defend traditional marriage, and officials said they expected a jump in donations.

“More than ever before, people are seeing this as a national issue,” said Tom McClusky, senior vice president of the council.

National and state organizations fighting same-sex marriage have raised millions of dollars on the issue in recent years and won some major victories, including the unseating last fall of three Iowa Supreme Court justices who had ruled against marriage restrictions. But some say their fund-raising has sometimes been impeded by the harassment of donors, an accusation that gay rights groups call exaggerated.

In Minnesota, where both sides are preparing for a vote next year on a constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage, conservatives are fighting financial disclosure requirements that they say would expose donors to intimidation.

Several local and national groups are starting to coalesce into a campaign in support of the amendment, said Jason Adkins, the executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference. But he said that fund-raising would not go into full swing until the disclosure issues were settled...

“If gay marriage supporters think that New York is an indication of a national trend, they are mistaken,” said Brian S. Brown, the president of the National Organization for Marriage, which has received large donations from the Knights of Columbus, the Roman Catholic fraternal organization.

A battle is expected soon in Maine, where gay rights proponents, inspired by the outcome in New York, announced last week that they would start gathering signatures to put same-sex marriage on the ballot next year. The governor in 2009 signed into law a bill allowing same-sex marriage, but opponents pushed it to a referendum, and voters defeated it a few months later.

North Carolina will be another early battleground, with its legislature, now controlled by Republicans, expected to consider this fall whether to put a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage before voters in November 2012. North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast that has not already adopted such an amendment.

“There is a greater resolve in our state to stand up and get a marriage amendment into our State Constitution,” Ron Baity, the president of Return America, a conservative religious group in Wallburg, N.C., said after seeing the results in New York.

Another battle is expected in New Hampshire, one of the states that has adopted same-sex marriage. Pressure is mounting for the Legislature to take another historic step by reversing course.

In a fight expected to begin in January, conservatives think they have a good chance of victory in the Legislature, but they are not sure if they can muster enough votes to override an expected veto by the Democratic governor, John Lynch.

“The votes will be very close,” said Kevin H. Smith, the executive director of Cornerstone Action, a conservative group there.

The legislative fight in New Hampshire may take on national significance because a vote is expected in early February, around the same time as the state’s important presidential primary. Republican candidates “will have to be vocal” on same-sex marriage, Mr. Smith said. “The spotlight will be on it.”

In Maryland, a last-minute push by opponents this spring derailed a same-sex marriage law that had been widely expected to pass. Buoyed by New York, gay rights advocates plan to press for a vote to reverse that outcome next year.

But opponents say that even if the measure passes the legislature, they will gather signatures to force a “people’s referendum.”

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