Gay rights groups seeking progress in small increments

WASHINGTON – In the face of a fiery debate on same-sex marriage that has galvanized their opponents, gay rights groups are focusing on quieter fights within states and corporations, attempting to build an everyday acceptance of homosexuality they hope will promote social change.

From gay adoption to anti-discrimination rules to domestic partnership policies, these campaigns amount to a long-term, piecemeal strategy rather than one seeking immediate, sweeping change.

They are designed to be realistic about what Americans will accept while laying the groundwork for future advances.

“The challenge for us is to find as many creative ways as we can to reach as many Americans as we can,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the large gay and lesbian civil rights group. “To me, the work of moving the American people toward marriage equality is about moving people toward a greater understanding and respect of same-sex relationships.”

Although the Senate this past week did not pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, the overall trend on this subject is negative for gay rights advocates. Voters in Alabama last week approved a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, making it the 20th state to do so. Every state that considered such a ban in the 2004 elections approved it.

Six more states are scheduled to vote on same-sex marriage bans in November – Idaho, Virginia, Wisconsin, South Dakota, South Carolina and Tennessee – and in all those states the bans are given a good chance of passage. Scenes of same-sex couples marrying in San Francisco, before the courts shut down the process, created a backlash that mobilized opponents, as did court rulings favoring same-sex marriage or civil unions in Massachusetts, Hawaii and Vermont.

Even the action in the Senate felt hollow to some gay activists, who said few, if any, senators openly made the case that it is wrong to prevent gays from marrying.

“Even where we won the debate in Washington this week, it was not with a full engagement of the important question of fairness – who gay people are and why marriage matters to all families,” said Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, a group partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. “While it’s a very good thing to defeat an outrageous attack, it’s a little bit like waking up alive: It’s a good thing to wake up alive, but you want more out of your day.”

Gay activists are looking to other fights, with some success. In the corporate world in particular, the calculus appears to be different than in the political arena.

“Corporate America has really eclipsed Congress on issues of fairness and equality,” said Brad Luna, director of media relations for the Human Rights Campaign.

About 85 percent of the Fortune 500 companies, for example, now have nondiscrimination policies that include protection for sexual orientation, up from 66 percent in 2002. Half the Fortune 500 companies also offer domestic partner benefits, twice as many as in 2000.

The Human Rights Campaign is pushing companies to adopt policies tolerant toward homosexuals, and it has devised a Corporate Equality Index that rates companies in seven areas.

States also have often been somewhat receptive to the gay community’s arguments about equality and fairness. Only three states prevent same-sex couples from adopting children, and 24 specifically allow gays and lesbians who are step-parents or “second parents” to adopt the child of a gay partner.

Meanwhile, 31 states have hate crime laws that penalize individuals who target people because of their sexual orientation.