Dear George:

Gay marriage will become an issue in the campaign if the Republicans succeed in making it one. It will be a slick attenot to divert the electorate from the failures of the Bush Administration. If the GOP succeeds at this, however, they may wish they hadn't. The issue will boomerang immediately with 10% of the population having a gay orientation, and make them fighting mad. After all, their personal happiness is at stake here.

As for those who agree with Bush on the issue, it really doesn't affect their lives one way or the other, does it? Whether two people of the same sex get married truly doesn't impact on their lives in any real way, does it? So inflaming the campaign with gay bashing is not apt to make anti-gays work harder against the Democratic candidates. But it will inspire a lot of gays to make an extra effort to defeat Bush.

Sherwood Ross (electronic mail, November 19, 2003