Popping The Question

If the trick for some Democrats is to be pro gay while shunning gay marriage, the goal of Republicans will be to support a marriage ban without heading down the cultural warpath the way Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson did at the 1992 G.O.P. Convention--a tactic that helped lose George H.W. Bush the election. When George W. Bush said last week he would do "what is legally necessary to defend the sanctity of marriage," he sidestepped references to any constitutional amendment.

Gay activists compare last week's ruling with the 1967 Supreme Court decision that struck down state bans on interracial marriage, a decision that also was unpopular in its day but now seems fundamental to our notion of justice. The Human Rights Campaign, a national gay organization, has just kicked off a $1 million print, radio and television ad campaign to give a human face to same-sex parents and their children. Evan Wolfson, executive director of the pro-gay group Freedom to Marry, likes to quote Gandhi: "He said, 'First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win.' Well, our opponents are no longer ignoring us or laughing at us. Now they've been fighting us, and this week we won." True enough, but both sides know that the fight is nowhere near finished.

--Reported by Wendy Cole/Chicago, Matthew Cooper/Washington and Nathan Thornburgh/Boston