The answer is millions of religious conservatives, for whom gay marriage has become a galvanizing issue akin to abortion. This past Friday, evangelicals from across the country gathered in D.C. for a massive "Mayday for Marriage" rally intended to move the issue to the front of the agenda during the last days of the presidential campaign. The Ohio Christian Coalition will soon distribute 2 million voter guides advocating yes on Issue 1 and highlighting Bush's support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. "Issue 1 has already become a tremendous mobilizer in getting the church and faith-based vote to the polls for November," says Chris Long, executive director of the Christian Coalition of Ohio.
USA Today reports that Rod Parsley, pastor of Ohio's 12,000-member World Harvest Church, has "assembled a list of 100,000 Ohio acolytes, all of whom will be called by the World Harvest Church on the eve of the election, reminding them to vote." The newspaper pointed out that Parsley held a September meeting of 200 Ohio ministers to explain that they could advocate for the supposedly nonpartisan Issue 1 without losing their nonprofit tax status.
Over 1,000 Ohio pastors have attended Christian Coalition policy briefings on Issue 1 featuring speakers such as Jerry Falwell, Illinois Senate candidate Alan Keyes and Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, one of the few state leaders to support the initiative. (Blackwell became briefly notorious in September when he tried to invalidate thousands of new, mostly Democratic voter registrations on the grounds that the paper they were printed on was too thin.)
Similar mobilizations are happening in all of the states with marriage amendments on the ballot, several of which are important swing states. "Early signs are that the amendments will stimulate a higher vote in more traditional areas of the states," says Gary Bauer, veteran right-wing activist and head of the group American Values. He points to the high voter turnout in Missouri, which voted on a state anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment on Aug. 3. "The turnout in Missouri, even on a day where it was basically just a Democratic primary, was heavy, and the margins, particularly in rural counties, was about as close to unanimous as you get in a democracy."
Despite all the national backing, the driving force behind Issue 1 is an Ohioan named Phil Burress, founder of a group called Citizens for Community Values. A thrice-married Cincinnati man who describes himself as a former pornography addict redeemed by Jesus, Burress has spent much of the last decade fighting gay rights. He was involved in getting Cincinnati to pass a 1994 amendment to its city charter, making it the only metropolis in the country to ban laws protecting gays and lesbians. He's also been active in trying to get Ohio hotels to stop offering pay-per-view porn.
Burress began thinking about the specter of gay matrimony in 1995, when a friend in Honolulu warned him that the same-sex marriage fight that had erupted there could spread to the mainland. In January of 1996, he called a meeting of about 25 national "pro-family" activists in Memphis, Tenn., to discuss strategy. Today, he makes no apologies for wanting to eliminate domestic partnership benefits as well as marriage rights for gay couples. "Ohio State and Miami University, Columbus and Cleveland Heights are all taxpayer-funded institutions," he says. "They're using taxpayer money and giving out the benefits of marriage when they have no right to do so."
Bauer, a close associate of Burress', also says the goal of the movement is to ban legal benefits for same-sex couples. "I think that you really haven't accomplished much if you say marriage is between a man and a woman and then you go down the road of giving to some other combination of individuals all of the rights that accrue to marriage, like filing a joint state tax return," he says. "All you've done then is play a word game with the electorate."
If Issue 1 prevails, political and business leaders are extremely worried that an exodus of educated professionals will follow, along with a decrease in tourism and convention business. As the Plain Dealer reported on Sept. 25, Julie Harrison Calvert, spokeswoman for the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau, says that the city's 1994 anti-gay amendment charter has cost Cincinnati at least $46 million in potential convention business. "More than a dozen firms that had considered Cincinnati, or already booked its convention center, pointed to the anti-gay measure as the reason for going elsewhere," the story said, adding, "Now, such icons as Procter & Gamble and the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce are trying to get rid of the provision, saying it harms corporate recruiting."
The state's universities say that Issue 1 will make it harder for them to attract top talent and to keep the people they already have. Karen Holbrook, president of Ohio State University, recently issued a statement saying that the amendment would be "harmful to our institution's ability to remain competitive with other employers and institutions of higher learning."
Recruiting is especially important to local employers because of the way the state is hemorrhaging young people. "We're losing our talent and somehow, as our economy gets back on track, we've got to attract in additional talent," says Cheryl McClellan, a Republican sales consultant who is working with Ohioans Protecting the Constitution to organize business opposition to Issue 1. "We're going to restrict our ability to bring new talent and retain talent within Ohio if we say, 'Hey, we want you here, but you better leave your domestic partner behind.'"
It's not hard to find professional gay couples who are thinking of packing their bags. Recently, several gay Ohioans in long-term relationships gather at Dorrie and Karen Andermills' suburban Columbus home to talk about how their lives will change if Issue 1 passes. Every one of them says they are considering moving. The Andermills, who have had both a domestic partnership ceremony in Vermont and a wedding in Ontario, Canada, are longtime marriage-equality activists. Both are from Ohio and want to live near their families -- Karen helps care for a sister who has multiple sclerosis. Still, says Dorrie, who works for the American Red Cross, "We're all making plans."
Bob Barnes, an assistant vice president at Huntington National Bank, lives with Ryan Poirier, who is working on his Ph.D. in education at Ohio State University. "If Ohio did become a hate state and there was a state that said we'll welcome you, after Ryan finishes his Ph.D., I will take my MBA and we'll go," he says.