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On June 23, a massive storm lashed Northern California with eight thousand lightning strikes, sparking at least 842 wildfires from Big Sur to Humboldt Bay and points east. Assistant regional chief Del Walters of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection declared the disturbance "unprecedented."

Denizens of the Christian fundamentalist blogosphere and Bible-wielding reactionaries all over America have no doubt that God was purposefully slam-dunking thunderbolts into a place where gay and lesbian couples have been courting brimstone. The heavenly smackdown targeted a state whose Supreme Court recently voided the California Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), giving the U.S. its second venue for same-sex marriage. (See A Long Courtship.)

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I'm sure a parade of arrogant atheists, Jews, and liberals will insist that it's 'inconceivable' that this fantastic lightning display and record number of fires could be a 'sign from God,'" writes hard-right pundit Charles Coughlin at the Altermedia.info ("World Wide News for People of European Descent") website. "This sort of attitude reminds me of the arrogant and unconcerned nature of the residents of Sodom, who happily coexisted with all sorts of perversity."

Homophobes certain of a watchful, petulant God may be the most committed foot soldiers of the Protect Marriage Coalition, an alliance of conservative public officials, churches, state family-values lobbies, and such national right-wing warhorses as Focus on the Family and Concerned Women for America (CWA).

The leadership of the coalition knows that warnings of divine retribution do little to sell their message to the mainstream. CWA may have been founded by Beverly LaHaye, wife of Endtime novelist Tim LaHaye (author of the Left Behind series, in which God and Jesus massacre the wicked), but the organization does not publicly endorse wrath-of-God meteorology. "Although there are people who feel like that," says spokeswoman Natalie Bell, "we're never going to release a statement adopting that point of view."

Like other Protect Marriage adherents, however, CWA does encourage goal-oriented prayer. Calling "the decision by the California court on same-sex marriage an affront to God and His plan for marriage and the family," CWA President Wendy Wright invited coalition members and sympathizers to join in a day of Prayer and Fasting on June 17, the day California began issuing gender-neutral marriage licenses to same-sex couples -- triggering a 150 percent increase in marriage-license applications.

Power to the people

The prayers of CWA's members and supporters were not so much meant to summon lightning as to insure the success of Protect Marriage's core project -- passage of the California Marriage Protection Act, a proposed amendment injecting into the state constitution the sentence "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." In April 2008, before the state Supreme Court ruled on the issue, members of the Protect Marriage Coalition delivered 1.1 million petition signatures in support to the California Secretary of State.

By June 2, the requisite two-thirds of those signatures had been certified, insuring that the California Marriage Protection Act will go before the electorate as Proposition 8 on the November 2008 ballot. If a simple majority of voters approves the measure, the amendment will trump the state high court's ruling.

Opposing the Protect Marriage Coalition is the West Hollywood-based Equality for All Campaign, encompassing national GLBT organizations and state chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Organization for Women (NOW), and other groups. (The competing coalitions maintain competing websites, Protectmarriage.com and Equalityforall.com.)

"Winning the freedom to marry in California is epic and historic," says Evan Wolfson, executive director of the advocacy group Freedom to Marry. "Holding onto that freedom is the next great task of our movement. The stakes are enormous."

The stakes are especially high in this presidential election year, when once again gay marriage threatens to trigger a political dodgeball match -- as it did in 2004 after Democratic candidate John Kerry's home state, Massachusetts, instituted same-sex marriage. Many observers have noted with relief that at least Barack Obama -- presumptive Democratic presidential nominee -- is from Illinois, not California. But Obama, already on record as supporting civil unions, cannot duck the issue. He has been performing a delicate balancing act, distancing himself from same-sex marriage on the one hand and DOMA initiatives on the other.

On June 30, in a letter to San Francisco's Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, Obama spelled out his opposition to "divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California constitution." As reporter John Wildermuth noted in the July 2 San Francisco Chronicle, the statement "puts gay rights front and center in the 2008 presidential campaign."

Obama's Republican counterpart, Senator John McCain, is now eagerly exploiting the specter of same-sex marriage. He has called the notion of a DOMA amendment to the U.S. constitution "un-Republican" -- an affront to states' rights -- but supports the efforts of individual states to enshrine the heterosexual marriage model in their own constitutions. His home state, Arizona, will join California and Florida in including a DOMA referendum on the November 2008 ballot.

Pulling a wedgie on the Dems

McCain has joined the Christian Right in decrying "judicial activism" allegedly exemplified by gay-marriage rulings. The phrase "activist judges," applied whenever a court decision abrades conservative sensibilities, is now being hurled at the predominantly-Republican California Supreme Court. In fact, when in 2005 and 2007 the California Assembly -- deemed by the Right a more appropriate conduit for social change -- voted in favor of gender-blind marriage legislation filed by Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill, leaving the issue up to the courts.

Schwarzenegger -- who, as a moderate Republican, belongs to an endangered species in the Age of Bush -- has no problem with the domestic-partnership system still on the books in his state. Despite his declared disapproval of same-sex marriage, he has never stooped to ritual denunciation. His opposition to Proposition 8 has drawn fire from right-leaning GOP members who accuse him of "flip-flopping" on traditional family values. Having called gay marriage a matter for the judiciary, Schwarzenegger seems to accept the state Supreme Court's determination of its legality. "I hope California's economy is booming because everyone is going to come here and get married," he said recently, referring to an uptick in wedding-related business.

At the tipping point?

Schwarzenegger has predicted that Proposition 8 will fail. The contest, however, will be close. A recent Field Poll of California voters indicated that 51 percent now believe gay couples should have marriage rights, while 42 percent do not. On the other hand, a May 23 Los Angeles Times poll suggested that 54 percent of registered voters favor reinstatement of the same-sex marriage ban, with only 35 percent opposed.

Opinion varies on the marriage question even among gay activists, some of whom view the same-sex marriage fight as a power struggle among conservatives.

"The push for marriage has turned gays into Reagan-style right-wingers," says gay liberationist Bill Dobbs. "It's astonishing how rabidly people will, at the expense of singles and others, choose marriage over a genuinely liberating bundle of rights. It's a terrible blow to the gay imagination."

The conservatism of the same-sex marriage movement may account for its partial success in selling a traditionalized vision of gay relationships to a public anchored in traditional social structures. Full marriage rights are now available to gay and lesbian couples in Canada and Spain; many other countries recognize same-sex unions. In the U.S. -- though 44 states have adopted versions of DOMA -- civil-union or domestic-partnership statutes have been passed in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, New Jersey, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and Washington, D.C. In Connecticut and Iowa, same-sex marriage cases await state supreme court rulings.

The New York and New Jersey legislatures may legalize same-sex marriage in the not-too-distant future. In New York, Governor David Paterson has directed all state agencies to make sure they are prepared to recognize same-sex marriages performed in California and elsewhere. The directive -- essentially a reminder of longstanding policy -- contains a sharp whiff of advocacy.

Opposing camps in the California marriage issue are mobilizing for November. On June 20, Equality California and other gay-rights advocacy groups filed a lawsuit to have Proposition 8 removed from the ballot, calling the measure misleading and procedurally improper. On June 25, the Protect Marriage Coalition conducted an elaborate Proposition 8 strategy session via statewide conference call. According to the Los Angeles Times, same-sex marriage opponents had a fundraising edge of 57 percent by the end of June.

As The Guide goes to press, wildfires across California burn out of control, and believers in a vengeful God await orders to march to the polls.

See also this issue:

Promiscuity's Freedom, or Marriage's Respectability?; Evaluating the trade in 1953

Marriage Rites vs. Family Rights ; Earlier activists sought to subvert marriage's elite status. Now, GLBT groups are clamoring for access to the club. Lawyer, activist, and professor Nancy Polikoff proposes a more equitable way.

A Long Courtship; Gay marriage in the Golden State