Last time I checked, we won virtually every time this issue was put before the voters. We only lost this time because we were dealing with four totalitarian judges determined to substitute their personal opinion for the actual law, not to mention possessing the impudence to redefine an institution pre-dating the founding of our nation (i.e., marriage).
Hmm. Are you of the belief that the institution of marriage is static and hasn’t changed before, many, many times? Here’s the rundown...
Civil marriage has undergone significant changes in the United States since the country’s inception:
1830 - Right of married woman to own property in her own name (instead of all property being owned exclusively by the husband) in Mississippi.
1848 - Right of married women to own property in her own name in New York.
1854 - The Republican party referred in its platform to polygamy as one of the “twin relics of barbarism” (in addition to slavery). At the time, polygamy was a practice of some Mormons. See plural marriage.
1862 - The United States Congress enacted the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act, signed by Abraham Lincoln, which made bigamy a felony in the territories punishable by $500 or five years in prison.
1873 - Supreme Court rules that a state has the right to exclude a married woman from practicing law.
1874 - Congress passed the Poland Act, which transferred jurisdiction over Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act cases to federal prosecutors and courts in Utah, which were not controlled by Mormons.
1879 - The Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Reynolds v. United States
1882 - Congress passed the Edmunds Act, which prohibited not just bigamy, which remained a felony, but also bigamous cohabitation, which was prosecuted as a misdemeanor, and did not require proof an actual marriage ceremony had taken place. The law also allowed polygamists to be held indefinitely without a trial.
1887 - Congress passed the Edmunds-Tucker Act, which allowed prosecutors to force polygamist wives to testify against their husbands, and abolished the right of women in Utah to vote.
1890 - Mormons in Utah officially renounce polygamy through the 1890 Manifesto.
1900 - All states now grant married women the right to own property in their own name.
1904 - Mormons in Utah officially renounce polygamy again, excommunicating anyone who participates in future polygamy.
1907 - All women acquired their husband’s nationality upon any marriage occurring after that date.
1920 - Right of women to vote.
1933 - Married women granted right to citizenship independent of their husbands.
1965 - Supreme Court overturns laws prohibiting married couples from using contraception.
1967 - Supreme Court overturns laws prohibiting interracial couples from marrying (Loving v. Virginia).
1971 - Supreme Court upholds an Alabama law that automatically changed a woman’s legal surname to that of her husband upon marriage.
1971 - Supreme Court refuses to hear challenge to Minnesota Supreme Court ruling allowing prohibition of same-sex marriages (Baker_v._Nelson).
1972 - Supreme Court overturns laws prohibiting unmarried couples from purchasing contraception.
1975 - Married women allowed to have credit in their own name.
1976 - Supreme Court overturns laws prohibiting abortions for married women without the consent of the husband.
1996 - President Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act into law.
2004 - Massachusetts recognizes same-sex marriage.
2008 - California recognizes same-sex marriage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_civil_marriage_in_the_U.S.