Gay marriage debate splits Democrats

Democratic state Senator Jarrett T. Barrios, addressing more than 1,000 gay marriage supporters at a State House rally yesterday, pointed to Massachusetts Democratic Party Chairman Philip W. Johnston and said, "Discrimination in any form will not be tolerated in his party."

The line drew loud cheers from the crowd, which included a dozen Democratic lawmakers. But if the rally made it seem the state's Democratic Party is united in its support of gay marriage, looks are deceiving.

In fact, the Supreme Judicial Court's Nov. 18 ruling declaring same-sex marriage constitutional has opened a fissure in the state's dominant party.

Some of the state's most prominent Democrats -- such as House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, Senate President Robert E. Travaglini and Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly -- do not support gay marriage. Reilly, who is considered a potential gubernatorial candidate in 2006, has suggested that civil unions would comply with the SJC's ruling. Travaglini and the state Senate have asked the SJC for its opinion of a Senate civil unions bill. Finneran has supported a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, a measure that is being pushed this year by Representative Philip Travis, a Democrat.

And yet gay marriage is backed by other Democrats, many in leadership positions, such as House Majority Leader Salvatore F. DiMasi, who attended yesterday's pro-gay marriage rally.

Johnston, a former state lawmaker, said he appeared at yesterday's rally because he feels "strongly about this issue on a personal level" and not to make a partisan statement. Still, he said he will spend the next several weeks lobbying the Legislature's 170 Democrats to vote against Travis's amendment, which will be debated on Feb. 11. "This is a basic question about tolerance and civil rights," Johnston said. "I disagree with Democrats who say gays and lesbians should not have the right to marry."

Johnston's lobbying efforts may not bear much fruit. Many lawmakers on Beacon Hill, including Travaglini, are hoping the SJC approves a draft bill that would create Vermont-style civil unions, while keeping marriage for heterosexual couples only.

State Senator Robert A. Havern III, an Arlington Democrat who spoke at yesterday's rally, said his colleagues are mostly concerned with taking a politically safe position, one they will abandon only if pushed.

"When [legislators] understand that it's more important to be right than comfortable, that's when we take major steps forward," he told the crowd, which packed the main hall of the State House.

Currently, the state Democratic Party's official platform embraces Vermont-style civil unions, Johnston said. But Johnston said that Democratic activists, usually more liberal than the party membership as a whole, will probably try to make gay marriage a plank in the platform at the party's convention in May.

At last year's Democratic convention in Lowell, activists pushed through a plan to create an official party scorecard to inform voters whether a candidate is faithful to the platform. As a result, candidates in November's elections could face the prospect of having their position on the issue made abundantly clear to voters.

The state's Republicans are also split. Governor Mitt Romney opposes same sex marriage, while former governor William F. Weld and some GOP lawmakers, such as Senator Jo Ann Sprague, support it. But because Democrats dominate discourse on Beacon Hill and because most Republicans have lined up behind Romney since the ruling, the Democrats' divisions are more likely to have a greater effect on the upcoming debate. "It's clear when you have Democrats leading the charge against gay marriage that there's a problem in the Democratic Party," said Marty Martinez, cofounder of the Progressive Democrats of Somerville and a regular delegate at the state party's conventions.

Robert Reich, the former US labor secretary who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2002, said he hopes the party takes the step of supporting gay marriage.

"I think it should be a plank," Reich, who came out in favor of gay marriage on the campaign trail, said in a telephone interview. "Massachusetts has always been a leader in human and civil rights, and we ought to continue that tradition. Massachusetts voters, particularly young voters, are very progressive on issues of sexual orientation. There's absolutely no reason why the Massachusetts Democratic Party should not be a pioneer with regard to the issue of same-sex marriage."

On the national level, polls continue to show that a majority of Americans oppose gay marriage, and some Republican strategists expect the issue to surface in the presidential race. The prospect of the Democratic National Convention taking place in Boston in July, just a couple of months after gay marriages are to become legal, is delicious to conservatives.

With the spotlight trained on gay marriage, observers say, the issue will be tough to dodge in state elections. "It will be an issue that the candidates have to address," said Republican media consultant Todd Domke.

At yesterday's rally, several speakers likened the fight for gay civil marriage to the battle for black civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s.

But Domke and other observers say that, at least in Massachusetts, the continued internal divisions among Democrats will deprive the party of making gay marriage a signature issue. Republicans in Massachusetts, on the other hand, tend to be more moderate than the national GOP.

"In many cases, Republican candidates [in Massachusetts] will be taking a position that sounds like what many of these national Democratic candidates are taking, which is pro-civil unions, the position of John Kerry, Richard Gephardt, [Joseph] Lieberman," Domke said.

While conceding that gay marriage is an extremely divisive issue, Michael Goldman, a Democratic political consultant, said it remains to be seen whether same-sex civil rights become an issue that lures voters to the polls.

"This is not abortion," Goldman said. "I have seen nothing that leads me to believe that a voter will say, `I like your fiscal record, your crime record, education, but I'm not going to vote for you because you're for gay marriage.' That dynamic is not there yet."

A recent Zogby poll of Massachusetts voters seemed to affirm that point, finding that only 5 percent of likely voters surveyed feel that gay marriage is the most important issue facing the state. Instead, most voters pointed to the economy, education, health care, and state spending.

Still, many on Beacon Hill say the gay marriage debate has overshadowed other pressing issues.

"To be here, in this building, at this time," Representative Elizabeth Malia, a Democrat, told the rally yesterday, "is an incredibly overwhelming experience."