“The Wrong Way to Win Gay Marriage Rights”

“The Wrong Way to Win Gay Marriage Rights”

So, in these desperate final weeks, the new campaign team for No on 8 has adopted a tough, closing message that may yet salvage victory for same-sex marriage. The message? The people behind the ban are Mormons . . .

This Mormon support is so vast that it’s a political vulnerability for the Yes on Prop 8 campaign. In polls, Americans register a low opinion of the Mormon religion (In a 2007 CBS News survey, the religion had a 25 percent favorable rating; the only faith less popular was Islam) The church’s history on marriage — it ended polygamy in 1890 — is a complicated one. So Mormons are a tempting target. But by raising the issue of Mormon support for the ban, supporters of same-sex marriage, who have spent decades battling religious prejudice, are now in the awkward position of profiting from religious prejudice.

There is rough justice in that. Perhaps too rough. It’s unlikely that the progressive groups would ever single out their political opponents’ religion if the religion in question was Judaism or Catholicism . . .

In its final days, the campaign in California feels less like a debate over the nature of marriage and more like a low-down discussion of which is creepier: gay sex or Mormons?

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1. When are out-of-state phone banks wrong?