E-Mail This Article to a Friend GAY MARRIAGE State’s choice BY KRISTEN LOMBARDI

It’s been a roller coaster of a week for gay-marriage supporters across the country. Here in Massachusetts, activists pushing for civil-marriage rights for same-sex couples basked in the triumph of success after ousting two of 11 incumbent "anti-equality legislators" targeted for defeat in the September 14 primary elections (see "A Little Extra Bubbly," This Just In, September 17). But victory soon gave way to defeat. On September 18, voters in Louisiana passed a ballot question to amend that state’s constitution to ban gay marriage. The measure was the first of many that will appear on ballots this election season, with residents of 11 other states set to cast a vote on the topic. The Phoenix caught up with Matt Foreman, of the New York–based National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, to discuss the state of these ballot-question campaigns nationwide.

Q: To what do you attribute the Louisiana ballot-question loss?

A: We’ve lost because we haven’t had the time, money, or resources to educate voters. It’s not because marriage equality is a losing issue per se. It’s because we have not had those three elements in place.

Q: So does this issue have a galvanizing effect on right-wing voters?

A: Turnout in Louisiana was only about 28 percent — significantly lower than in prior primary elections. Last year, when other constitutional amendments were on the ballot there, the turnout was 48 percent. Clearly, the issue did not galvanize the electorate in the way that the right-wing thinks it should.

Q: What’s your take on things in the other 11 states?

A: We are a huge underdog. In some states, like Oregon, we have a better shot at marriage equality. As an organization we decided that rather than spread our limited resources around, we’d focus on one place. We picked Oregon because it has beat three anti-gay ballot initiatives since 1988, and we sent $500,000 to help in the [pro-gay-marriage] campaign there. But we are facing an extraordinary uphill battle everywhere. When we go door to door in places across the country — be it Atlanta, Topeka, or Portland — we find that if you can engage voters in a one-on-one conversation you can change minds. But having those conversations on a scale needed to change the outcome of the ballot questions is beyond our grasp right now.

Q: Are there any pleasant surprises in these states?

A: We need to define our own victories. If we wake up on November 3 and our state organizations have identified thousands of pro-gay-marriage voters and new donors and are ready to fight in the legislative sessions starting in January, it’s a victory. Look at what happened in California. In 2000, voters there overwhelmingly adopted a ballot initiative prohibiting the recognition of same-sex marriage. Four years later, California offers the nation’s third-most-comprehensive recognition laws after Massachusetts and Vermont. People weren’t demoralized or defeated. They picked themselves up and came back with an extraordinary string of legislative victories.

Q: What do these ballot-question battles say about the fight pending in this state?

A: Not a lot. We want to win on November 2 in at least one state so no politician can say this is always a losing issue. But legislators in one state rarely give a damn about what happens in other states. And as far as Massachusetts goes, the results of the primary elections speak for themselves. For politicians who say, "I’ll be dead if I touch marriage equality," it clearly wasn’t the case in Massachusetts.