How Gay Marriage Will Dominate the 2012 GOP Primary

If there's any question about what social issue is likely to dominate the 2012 Republican Primary for President, look no further than the issue of gay marriage.

Yes, there's definitely proof that on the whole, grassroots Republicans are less and less concerned about fighting marriage equality. At this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), gay marriage was the issue that polled the absolute lowest when it came time for GOP activists to express what they're most concerned about.

Somebody should tell that to the folks who will be running the show in 2012. Because if you do a quick survey of the leading contenders for the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination, all of them are rattling some homophobic cages when it comes to the subject of same-sex marriage.

One of the most recent is Mitt Romney, who despite once saying that he would be a better advocate for the LGBT community than the late Senator Ted Kennedy, now thinks that gay people threaten heterosexual marriage. "I continue to believe very deeply, as I have in the last campaign described, that marriage must be defended. I think it's under attack," Romney said on Fox News Sunday this past weekend.

But Romney is certainly not alone. In fact, there may be a race to see which GOP candidate can out perform the other when it comes to taking hardline anti-gay positions. Cue former Senator Rick Santorum, who announced last night that he's considering a 2012 bid for President. Santorum was in Iowa -- one of the six places in this country where gay and lesbian couples can get legally married -- where he was the special guest of the Iowa Christian Alliance. His message? Beware the gays and their anti-Christian views.

"[There is] an attack on faith and the family," Santorum said. "“We see it here with marriage where anybody who stands up opposes the redefinition of marriage is considered a bigot. Someone who speaks from the pulpit, it’s considered hate speech. This is what we face, really an attack on religious liberty."

The irony of that sentence shouldn't be lost on anyone, given that anti-gay religious groups have been trying to erase the line between separation of church and state for years, perhaps no more so than on the issue of marriage equality. An attack on religious liberty? Funny, but I can't seem to recall any gay marriage law forcing a Church or a religion to change their belief system. Go figure.

And who can forget Mike Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa caucus by largely focusing on social issues. Huckabee has been campaigning heavily for an anti-gay gubernatorial candidate in Iowa, Bob Vander Plaats. Appearing at a rally two weeks ago, Huckabee said that if Vander Plaats ruled Iowa's State Capitol, same-sex marriage would be history.

“If Bob were governor, Iowa would not be one of those states that people scratched their heads and say, 'They have same-sex marriage?'” Huckabee said.

The real question is going to be whether any GOP candidate can emerge from the field in 2012 without taking a hardline position against marriage equality. Many of the other candidates in the field -- Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, among them -- have all spoken out loudly against same-sex marriage, anti-discrimination measures protecting sexual orientation and gender identity, and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Their positions on these issues place them outside of the mainstream of American political opinion -- particularly on passing anti-discrimination measures and repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," where large majorities of voters support both. But, as is becoming evident yet again, it seems like no GOP candidate can emerge from the primary without becoming fiercely anti-gay.

All the more reason, perhaps, for President Obama to throw the full force of his administration behind passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), and repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." These are two winning issues with voters, and they may just give him some much needed ammunition heading into 2012.

Photo credit: Alan Light