May 7, 2012 6:04 pm - Financial Times

Vote on gay marriage to test Obama

By Anna Fifield in Charlotte, North Carolina

North Carolina is expected to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on Tuesday, putting the issue at the top of the political agenda in a battleground election state.

The vote is awkward for Barack Obama, who won North Carolina by the narrowest of margins in the 2008 presidential election and has avoided discussing the amendment during visits to the state aimed at securing victory in November.

But on the eve of the vote, Joe Biden, the vice-president, and Arne Duncan, Mr Obama’s education secretary, both said they support marriage equality. The president, in contrast, says he wants greater rights for gay couples but has stopped short of endorsing same-sex marriage.

“In supporting marriage equality, he communicates to all students that they deserve an equal shot at the American dream of love, family and equality,” Joe Solmonese, head of the Human Rights Campaign gay-rights group, said on Monday after Mr Duncan told MSNBC, the broadcaster, that gay marriage should be legal.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that the president shares these values and that’s why it’s time for him to speak out in favour of marriage equality as well,” Mr Solmonese said.

Mr Duncan’s statement came after Mr Biden said on Sunday he was “comfortable” with same-sex marriage.

Although the president says his position is “evolving”, publicly commenting on the issue could alienate swing voters in states like North Carolina.

North Carolina has a statutory ban on same-sex marriage but, unlike most other southern states, has not changed its constitution to ban it outright.

In an amendment to be put during primary elections on Tuesday, which include the vote for the Republican presidential nomination that has been all-but-won by Mitt Romney, North Carolinians will be asked if they support the amendment, which declares that “marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognised”.

Public Policy Polling, a Democratic pollster based in North Carolina, published a survey on Monday showing that 55 per cent of respondents plan to vote for the amendment, while 39 per cent oppose it.

Nonetheless supporters of the amendment were concerned. “If we don’t win it, we’ll probably never get it in the constitution,” said Christine Steele Gates, 46, a married mother campaigning for the amendment. She told the Charlotte Observer newspaper. “The gay activists will win and then we’ll have Massachusetts, anything-goes here in the Bible Belt.”

Conservative activists had rallies planned around the state on Monday to mobilise support for the amendment.

Billy Graham, the 93-year-old celebrity evangelist, published full-page ads in 14 newspapers in the state and urged followers to “Vote for Marriage May eighth”.

“Watching the moral decline of our country causes me great concern,” Mr Graham said. “I believe the home and marriage is the foundation of our society and must be protected.”

Meanwhile, opponents released a robo-call ad from Bill Clinton, the former president.

“I’m calling to urge you to vote against amendment one,” Mr Clinton said in the recording that was automatically sent to North Carolina home phones on Monday.

The passage of the law would have a damaging effect on the state’s reputation and economy, he said.

“If it passes, it won’t change North Carolina’s law on marriage. What it will change is North Carolina’s ability to keep good businesses, attract new jobs, and attract and keep talented entrepreneurs,” Mr Clinton said.

Although the presidential election will revolve around the economy, such issues could hurt the president in conservative swing states.

Mr Obama’s re-election campaign is working hard to try to hold North Carolina, with the president making visits to the state and the Democratic National Committee holding its convention in Charlotte in September.

A Gallup poll of 12 swing states, including North Carolina, released on Monday found that Mr Obama was slightly ahead of Mr Romney, his presumptive Republican rival, with them attracting 47 per cent and 45 per cent support respectively among registered voters.

Jim Kessler of Third Way, a left-leaning think-tank, and a Democratic adviser, brushed off the impact of the North Carolina amendment on swing voters.

“There are times when culture issues dominate an election, like partial birth abortion in 1996 and gun control in 2000, but this isn’t one of those elections,” he said. “This is an economy election.”

Public opinion on same-sex marriage is changing rapidly, with a number of states legalising the unions and opposition to them waning.

Opinion polls shows that Mr Obama has disappointed many members of the gay community by refusing to support legalising same-sex unions. But he remains more friendly to the idea than Mr Romney, who supports a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

Mr Biden said on Sunday same-sex marriage was a “simple proposition” about “who do you love, and will you be loyal to the person you love?.”

He told the Meet the Press programme: “And that’s what people are finding out, that is what all marriages at their root are about, whether their marriage is of lesbians or gay men or heterosexuals.”

Mr Obama’s re-election campaign advisers said on Monday that the vice-president’s message was “entirely consistent” with the president’s position that “whether they are gay or heterosexual, couples are entitled to the same rights and the same liberties”.

By contrast, Mr Romney’s campaign is coming under fire for its treatment of a gay foreign policy adviser who quit after pressure on the campaign from conservative activists.

Richard Socarides, a former Clinton administration adviser on gay rights who has been urging Mr Obama to move from his position backing greater rights for gay couples into full-fledged support for marriage equality, said it will be “very hard for the White House to finesse this much longer”.

He added: “This is a national discussion we are having about the rights of loving and committed couples. The president needs to take a stand.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012.