News Summary

The cause of gay rights has made enormous progress in the last couple of decades, but the more specific cause of gay marriage continues to be battered.

In the same election that voters helped bridge the United States' racial divide by electing the country's first African-American president, voters in California overrode a ruling of that state's Supreme Court and effectively rebanned gay marriage.

Reliably Democratic-voting California — home to those much-mocked "San Francisco values" that tolerate gay lifestyles — has now joined 29 other states, including Ohio, banning gay marriage.

Protests in reaction to the vote popped up across the country, including in Dayton. And recently some activists encouraged people to use a sick day, or to "call in gay," as a national demonstration of the broad economic impact of gays.

The backlash against California's Proposition 8 also could seed expansion of a mostly symbolic effort by cities, including in Ohio, to support their gay communities. Cleveland City Council, for example, last month took a stand in support of its gay community by creating a domestic partner registry.

Such registries date to the 1980s in northern California. The idea is to recognize committed relationships formally, and, in so doing, encourage employers and others to extend to gay couples benefits typically offered to married heterosexual couples. Nobody is required to recognize gay couples. But for businesses or organizations that want to be gay-friendly, the registry gives gays official documentation of their relationships.

Of course, the registry does not substitute for marriage. It is merely a public record of partnerships. But the record can allow, for instance, a hospital to verify a gay partner for visitation or organ donation authorization, provided the hospital wishes to do so.

Three Ohio cities have now taken this step: The others are Toledo and Cleveland Heights. Dayton leaders say the issue is "not on our radar right now," according to spokesman Tom Biedenharn.

Gay rights has been a political hot potato in the region's central city since 1999 when then-City Commissioner Mary Wiseman, who is gay and just this year was elected to the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, proposed a sensible extension of the city's nondiscrimination ordinance to gays. That touched off a firestorm of protests from the religious community and then-Mayor Mike Turner, who rallied support to defeat the measure.

Last year — not quite a decade later — the city commission on a 3-1 vote adopted Ms. Wiseman's proposal, notwithstanding the continued community protests. (Commissioner Joey Williams didn't vote, and Commissioner Dean Lovelace was the "no" vote.)

For now, Mr. Biedenharn said, the commission thinks it has shown its support for the gay community.

"I think symbolically it sets where we are with this," he said. "We are open, amenable and respectful of everybody's rights."

Gay marriage votes notwithstanding, the ground is shifting in favor of gay rights. Young people especially don't get why there should be any fuss about sexual orientation. Businesses are increasingly sensitive to their gay employees because, for them, the issue is workers' skills, not lifestyles. Many Republican politicians see a need for their party to separate itself from anti-gay causes.

Ohio's gay marriage ban probably won't be undone anytime soon. But the fact that it's in the constitution doesn't mean it's in concrete.