So goes Ohio, so goes the nation.
That’s the mantra that characterizes our swing state’s tendency to serve as a litmus test for the rest of the country’s political mood. It works well for predicting presidential election results, but this year it could serve to do the same with same-sex marriage legalization.
The advocacy group FreedomOhio has collected enough signatures to put a measure repealing Ohio’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage up to a vote in November. But a different advocacy group, Equality Ohio, wants to postpone that vote until 2016.
Polling data released Monday reveals that public approval for same-sex marriage sits at 50 percent in Ohio, which is why Equality Ohio wants another two years to bolster support for the effort before calling for a vote. A failed vote, it argues, could cripple efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in the state for years. FreedomOhio wants to go ahead with the initiative, but it has until July to decide.
We think each group has valid and logical points, but we would like to see same-sex marriage make it on the ballot in 2014. The poll shows that the approval rating gap is narrow, but we don’t think Ohio would be going too far out on a limb to push for a November vote.
In the time since the amendment to Ohio’s constitution banning same-sex marriage passed in 2004, 17 states have legalized same-sex marriage and a 2013 Gallup poll showed that nationwide public approval is at 53 percent. There is a fair and significant chance that Ohio voters would choose to repeal the same-sex marriage ban, and we’d rather see it happen sooner than later.
If we have the chance to right a wrong, we should take it, not sit back and hedge our bets while people continue to have their civil rights denied to them for the next two years — or however long it takes for that approval rating to reach some magic number.
If Ohio serves as a bellwether of the nation as a whole, we want the state to seize the opportunity to send a message to other on-the-fence states that if Ohio’s OK with same-sex marriage, maybe it really is the right time.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post’s executive editors.
