University of Wisconsin students organized Tuesday night in the Humanities building to decide a theme and format for Friday's "Protest the Ban" rally, a public display of opposition to the newly passed state marriage amendment.
The meeting — largely publicized by word of mouth and through a Facebook group — served as a forum for discussion between students searching for answers in response to the Nov. 7 passing of the marriage amendment that bans gay marriage and civil unions.
Branton Kunz, a UW senior, was encouraged by the fast growth of the protest's Facebook group. According to Kunz, since its creation Friday, the group has grown to more than 900 members. The goal of the meeting, he said, was to decide what message the protest wanted to send.
Kunz also expressed a hope that the protest would "spark a discussion about what's going to happen" on other campuses across the state and the nation.
Matt Nichter, a UW graduate student in sociology, said he wanted to "take advantage of the momentum" and keep the movement against the ban "alive."
The students present suggested protest formats ranging from a march on the Capitol, to a large petition, to some more extreme measures.
Nichter drew a comparison between the gay-rights movement and the civil-rights movement of the 1960s. Civil disobedience, he said, is not out of the question.
"I'm willing to go to jail for this … to force this issue back to the front of the mainstream agenda," Nichter said.
Some students expressed a fear that despite many UW students' passion for the issue, no concrete results would come from the protest. Students also expressed hope for support from various anti-ban organizations such as Students for a Fair Wisconsin.
In an interview with The Badger Herald, Eli Judge, chair of Students for a Fair Wisconsin, noted that while he wished the protesters well, Fair Wisconsin was "in no way connected" with their actions.
Judge added that Fair Wisconsin is still deciding on a strategy for the future, but may shift its focus from the marriage ban to helping "the university … try to find domestic partner benefits for faculty and students."
State Rep. Mark Gundrum, R-New Berlin, who authored the amendment, said the focus of the amendment was to protect traditional marriage, adding he believes marriage would be vulnerable in Wisconsin without a strict definition of its terms.
"We need this amendment to prevent activist judges in Wisconsin from doing what they have done in several other states, including Massachusetts and New Jersey, and that is legalizing same-sex marriage from the bench," Gundrum said.
The New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously ruled Oct. 25 that gay couples are entitled to the same legal rights and benefits as heterosexual couples, such as tuition assistance, survivors' benefits and spousal privilege in criminal trials.
Focusing on the ban on civil unions, state Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, is drafting a proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would honor the ban on gay marriages, but rectify potential problems, which he said stripped legal rights from unmarried straight and same-sex couples. Those protections include the right to receive domestic-partner benefits and have legally binding contracts, including wills.
