From Governor John Baldacci of Maine, after signing a law allowing same-sex marriage:
“In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions. I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage.”
Good for him. But I wonder if this is an example of how gay marriage opponents are going to end up losing this battle entirely when they could have won at least a partial victory if they’d been less strident in their opposition. If they had actively supported civil unions, that could have become the de facto standard across the country, accepted by courts and legislatures alike. But the ferocity of their opposition to any form of marriage equality might have been instrumental in convincing a lot of people like Baldacci that half measures are impossible. And if half measures are impossible, then full marriage rights are the only alternative.
In the long run, maybe none of this matters. But in the medium term, marriage opponents have adopted an attitude of such extreme intolerance that fewer and fewer people want anything to do with them. And with that, the cultural battle was lost.