The Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest
newspaper, believes 2013 is too soon to repeal the state's gay
marriage ban.
Ohio's constitutional amendment
limiting marriage to heterosexual couples was overwhelmingly approved
by voters in 2004.
An effort to repeal the amendment and
legalize gay nuptials in Ohio began last year.
Ian James, the co-founder of Freedom to
Marry Ohio, told the paper that he is “99.8 percent certain” that
the group will succeed in putting the issue on the ballot – perhaps
as early as this November.
The Plain Dealer columnist Brent
Larkin wrote
on Saturday that the effort “risks getting ahead of itself.”
Larkin cited lukewarm support from the
Ohio Democratic Party and Equality Ohio, the state's largest gay
rights advocate, before concluding: “2013 is probably at least a
year too early to make that happen.”
James disagreed: “Telling gay and
lesbian couples they have to wait is not a good place to start. It's
a chicken-and-egg approach to politics. This [the gay marriage
prohibition] is hurting our state. It's hurting our economy. And
there's something fundamentally wrong with telling religious
institutions who they can and can't marry.”