A Marriage-Minded Protest

Bracing against stormy weather, thousands of demonstrators from across the country converged on the National Mall on Friday to protest gay marriage, an increasingly potent political issue for social conservatives as the presidential election enters its final weeks.

Organized by a coalition of conservative Christian leaders, particularly the Rev. Ken Hutcherson, who heads a large Seattle-area church, the rally was intended to increase pressure for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Although the event was officially nonpartisan, the crowd’s preference for President Bush was clear both from the number of Bush-Cheney campaign signs and from participants’ comments.

“People should vote for who their conscience tells them, but I think it’s a no-brainer,” said John Flynn, 42 of Maryland, who plans to vote for Bush.

Dubbed “Mayday for Marriage,” the event drew conservative religious and political figures such as James Dobson, chairman of the evangelical group Focus on the Family; Illinois Republican Senate candidate Alan Keyes; and one-time presidential candidate Gary Bauer.

It was one of a number of efforts by evangelical Christian groups to boost voter turnout in a key part of Bush’s base. Other groups such as Redeem the Vote and iVotevalues.com emerged this year, targeting voter registration and turnout among Christian voters, who many analysts say had a low turnout in the 2000 elections.

The rally was as much about firing up conservative voters as it was about putting pressure on politicians to act on the gay marriage ban, and it reflected the rapid rise of gay marriage as a priority issue for social conservatives.

“There’s no question in my mind that this issue is very quickly jumping to the front of the line [as] the great cultural issue in this county,” said Luis Lugo, executive director of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. “It has surpassed abortion.”

President Bush and Democratic challenger Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts have said they believe marriage should be between a man and a woman. Bush thinks the Constitution should be amended to ban same-sex marriages, but Kerry says the issue is best left to the states.

Eleven states -- including Ohio, Michigan and Oregon -- will have measures to ban gay marriage on the ballot in November. All three are swing states where Bush and Kerry in are in tight races and high turnout of key constituencies could make the difference.

If votes in Missouri and Louisiana earlier this year are any indication, those ballot measures are likely to push evangelicals to the polls, said John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron who studies the religious right. Both states passed amendments banning same-sex marriages by large majorities and saw unusually high turnout of religious voters, said Green.

Even in states without measures on the ballot, religious groups and the Bush campaign are asking voters to keep the issue in mind in the voting booth, although until the recent debates the candidates rarely mentioned the issue in high-profile speeches.

Polls show that most Americans do not support same-sex marriage. However, the public is divided over a constitutional amendment to ban it.

At Friday’s rally, Keyes declared that the definition of marriage “will determine the life and death of the freedom and morality of our country.”

That conviction motivated JoAnn Monroe, 39, from Cheshire, Conn., to spend her birthday on the Mall.

“Gay marriage is just wrong,” she said. “It’s tearing apart our families, our schools and our society -- and most importantly, our children.”

Speakers sought to distinguish their opposition to same-sex marriage from homophobia.

“We’re not here for the purposes of hate,” Dobson said, echoing many other speakers. “It’s important that we treat every human being with respect.”