Government officials and gay-rights advocates touted the potential economic benefits of legalizing same-sex marriage in Arkansas during a joint news conference at the state Capitol on Monday.
Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin, a native of Arkadelphia, and Grant Tennille, the executive director of Arkansas’ Economic Development Commission, called for Arkansas to become the first state in the region to embrace same sex marriage.
Doing so, Tennille said, would yield unprecedented economic growth for thestate, encouraging highskill, high-tech and knowledge-based workers to move in.
“We have an opportunity here before us to move first,” said Tennille, the state’s leading official on economic development. “To be a leader in this country and maybe, more importantly, in the South. To affirmatively say that all of our citizens will be treated equally under the law. I know that the impact of that statement and that decision will mean economic growth in the state of Arkansas.”
Other speakers at Monday’s news conference included Reps. Deborah Ferguson, D-West Memphis, and Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, University of Arkansas student Ty Stacey, Northwest Arkansas Center for Equality Board President James Rector and Just Communities of Arkansas Executive Director Ruth Shepherd.
Recognizing same-sex marriage in Arkansas would mean either a repeal of a constitutional amendment that voters approved in 2004 defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman or a court ruling declaring the amendment unconstitutional.
In the wake of last month’s landmark Supreme Court rulings that struck down California’s same-sex marriage ban and negated a major component of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, Griffin decided to embark on a four-state tour advocating a re-examination of marriage laws in places many have “written off,” he said.
Monday’s events, including an open discussion at the University of Arkansas’ Clinton School of Public Service in downtown Little Rock, kicked off the tour. Griffin will visit Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia in the coming days, speaking on behalf of the largest gay-rights advocacy group in the United States.
“After those two historic Supreme Court decisions last week, what became immediately clear is that we increasingly live in two Americas,” Griffin said in a phone interview Friday. “There’s the one America - i.e. California - where LGBT people are fully protected under the law. And then there’s the other America, a state like Arkansas where LGBT people are still struggling to gain the most basic protections and benefits.” LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.
Gov. Mike Beebe reinforced his support of the state’s same-sex marriage ban Monday, despite the statements of his close friend and appointee, Tennille.
Tennille is free to express his own views, said Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample, but they don’t represent those of the administration.
DeCample added that the governor opposes employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, which remains legal throughout the state.
Griffin said Arkansas’ marriage ban and similar laws in 36 other states create a restrictive working environment for employees and encourage businesses to locate elsewhere.
“When a business has an opportunity to locate in a state where all of their employees are protected, or to go to a state that discriminates against them and treats them as second-class citizens, most businesses are going to choose one of those other states,” Griffin said.
The president of the Arkansas Family Council, which opposes same-sex marriage, said in a phone interview Monday that state residents have already voiced their opinion on the issue. And despite poll results unveiled by the Human Rights Campaign on Monday, he said, the argument for same-sex marriage in Arkansas won’t gain traction in the coming years.
A survey of 600 Arkansans commissioned by Griffin’s group and conducted between June 26 and June 30 found that 61 percent of Arkansans below the age of 30 support marriage equality. When all age-ranges were taken into account, 38 percent statewide said they supported same-sex marriage.
“I think much of the discussion about this is more wishful thinking on the part of people that have a particular agenda than it is a reality of people’s standing on the issue,” Family Council president Jerry Cox said. “I don’t see that [the survey] tells us anything that we didn’t already know. The people of Arkansas think people ought to be treated with respect, but they think marriage should be between a man and a woman.”
Cox said issues of employment discrimination should be handled in the private marketplace on a case-by-case basis.
Griffin expressed hope Monday that politicians in Arkansas could change their stances.
“I believe that Republicans and Democrats alike will continue to evolve on this issue, and I don’t give up on Gov. Beebe or any other elected official in the state,” he said.
Tennille also said he’d like to see a change of heart in his friend and boss, Beebe - though he wasn’t soliciting it.
“He has his opinion; it has formed over many, many years,” he said. “We’ve seen him move on some related issues once he began to understand what the impact of his decision might be, and I’m talking specifically about the [gay] adoption issue. I would hope that over time his opinion would change, but it’s not my job to try and change his opinion.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 07/09/2013