On Saturday, a editorial was printed in the Salt Lake Tribune, penned by Paul C. Burke, John W. Mackay, and Brett L. Tolman. This editorial gives the opinion that equal marriage rights for all people, whether they are in a homosexual relationship or in heterosexual relationship, will happen in the state of Utah soon by way of the judicial system. The three attorneys cite quotes from Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, passages from Utah's Constitutional Amendment 3, as well as the acumen of the justices that currently sit on the Utah Supreme Court as a part of their argument.
While marriage equality is something that I personally support, I must put on my skeptic hat for a moment. While I personally support marriage equality, I do not think that it will happen in the state of Utah soon. I'd like it to but I don't think it'll happen. This is why I feel this way.
Prop. 8 protest draws thousands in Salt Lake City
On the night that California's Prop 8 passed, a large group of people gathered to protest the LDS Church's involvement in the passage of that proposition. I remember seeing these protests on the news as I followed the nationwide election coverage. I watched these protests and one thought came to my mind: Where were these people when Amendment 3 was passed? Where was the outrage then? Were was the mobilization then? Why couldn't these people have been as organized back then at they are now?
Sure the gay community in Utah has grown, not just in size but also as a collective force in politics. The problem is that the gay community in Utah still does not have anything close to the influence that the conservative establishment has. Liberals in Utah have not even made much of a dent in the state of Utah in recent years. The reason that I am not currently a member of the Utah Democratic Party is that I don't see it as having any influence in the state. That lack of influence is what gives me my sense of skepticism.
It is my honest belief that when marriage equality comes to the state of Utah it will come after the conservative argument for marriage equality takes hold. The argument against government control over who we associate with and how we conduct our private affairs is the argument that will have a chance of swaying the overwhelmingly conservative people of Utah. Unfortunately that argument has yet to really take hold in America, much less in the state of Utah. If the judiciary does overturn Utah's Amendment 3, I have no doubt that, under the current circumstances, that a new law denying homosexuals marriage rights will be passed within months, if not weeks. I don't want to see this happen but I cannot deny the skeptic in me that tells me it is so.
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