Social conservative activist Ralph Reed drew an interesting parallel over the weekend while encouraging same-sex marriage opponents: Gay marriage has largely been imposed by the courts over the past year, much like the Dred Scott decision, he said. Abolitionists didn’t give up then, he argued, and we can’t now.
According to Yahoo News reporter Chris Moody, Reed stressed that he was not comparing gay marriage to slavery. But he did think that traditional-marriage supporters could draw on the lessons of abolitionists in the mid-1800’s who were motivated by the Dred Scott decision.
“The battle looked like it was lost, but it really wasn’t,” Reed said Saturday at a conference hosted by the group he founded, the Faith and Family Coliation. “And that’s kind of like where we are right now.”
“Anybody heard lately that we’re losing the marriage issue? Anybody heard that argument? You notice some similarities?” he continued. “I’m not comparing slavery to same-sex marriage, OK? I’m just pointing out that when you have these fights, what’s interesting is that if you look at same-sex marriage, it’s now legal in 17 states.”
“Only six of them, six out of those 17, six out of 50 states, had done it by referendum or by state legislature. In every other case, it was imposed by courts. Just like the courts had to impose Dred Scott. Because they couldn’t do it on the country because the country didn’t agree with it. The country, by the way, doesn’t agree with same-sex marriage,” Reed concluded.
