2004 with their wedge issue gay rights

Today, as in , gay marriage ranks at the bottom of the list of voter concerns. McCain and Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton oppose legalizing gay marriage and argue that civil marriage should be left to the states. Chrome Safari Continue. But pollsters caution that it may yet return to center stage in the presidential election this fall.

Obama, the Democratic front-runner, calls for civil unions conferring identical or similar legal status for gay couples; McCain does not. More from CBS News. Those who believe same-sex marriage could once again emerge as a polarizing issue in the presidential race note that the landmark November Massachusetts high court ruling legalizing gay marriage also took time before crystallizing as the most divisive social issue in the presidential race.

Some Washington analysts believe gay marriage has dulled as a wedge issue, pointing to the subdued public response to the May 15 California ruling, rising worries about the economy, and stylistic and ideological differences between the Bush and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.

Be the first to know. “Swing voters have a lot more on their minds than wedge issues.” And Republicans, she suggested, may be out of touch with Americans’ tolerance on gay rights. But as with abortion, polling has long shown that those opposed to same-sex marriage are most likely to vote on the topic.

The politics of same-sex marriage have been vexing to Democrats in recent years. This year, social conservatives are again pushing to turn same-sex marriage into a hot-button social issue. Ohio was one of 11 states to pass a same-sex marriage ban that year. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.

Just as the Bush campaign pushed the debate in , it might be McCain who determines whether or not gay marriage resurfaces as a salient issue in One McCain adviser said the campaign has not yet decided how to handle the issue in the coming general election.

The Supreme Court's decision, a sweeping defense of privacy rights for gays and lesbians, has created the first new hot-button issue of the '04 campaign. But are such ballot measures really as potent as claimed?. The leader of the nation's largest gay and lesbian political organization called Bush's support for such an amendment a desperate attempt to help his re-election bid and accused him of wanting to.

Texas exploding into politics. Democratic leaders, impressed by the purported success of GOP-backed ballot initiatives to ban same sex marriage in the election are pushing their own wedge initiatives to increase the minimum wage.