Gay Marriage Effort Fails in AZ as National LGBT Groups Withhold Support

Foolish

PHOENIX — Facing a splintered gay-rights community, supporters of legalizing same-sex weddings in Arizona have pulled the plug on putting the issue to voters next year.

"We got a substantial amount of pushback for a variety of reasons from the various LGBT groups," said Warren Meyer, chairman of the campaign.

Most significant, he said, is the belief that 2014 is too soon to push the issue in Arizona. Many believe that the issue would fare better in a presidential election year, Meyer said.

The other side of that coin, he said, is that the national gay-rights organizations who might be expected to provide substantial support would prefer to focus their efforts next year on other states where there is more pronounced support for allowing same-sex nuptials.

"They don't want a failure in 2014 to hurt momentum," he said.