Colorado's Amendment 2 May 1996: in Romer V. Evans, the Supreme Court rules that laws protecting gay people cannot be banned by popular vote, overturning Colorado's antigay amendment. (Changing perceptions).

Sometimes defeat leads to victory. Perhaps that's the lesson derived from the fierce battle over Amendment 2, the ballot measure Colorado voters passed on November 3,1992, banning protections against sexual orientation--based discrimination from becoming law.

Three and a half years after that dark day, in 1996 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Amendment 2 violated the Constitution because, in the now-famous words of Justice Anthony Kennedy, Colorado risked making gays and lesbians "a stranger to its laws."

More narrowly tailored antigay measures have fared poorly since that 6-3 ruling. In fact, the last three ballot measures aimed solely at stripping sexual orientation from antidiscrimination laws or, like Amendment 2, at precluding gay rights laws from ever being enacted have gone down to defeat, often by a considerable margin--two in Michigan cities last November and one in Miami--Dade County, Fla., in September. (Such votes are slated for November in three other U.S. cities.)

Many explanations have been offered for this remarkable political turnabout. Some attribute it to the high court's implicit condemnation of official antigay prejudice becoming enshrined in the law. While the ruling clearly played a major role, a more basic motive came into play: The Colorado vote and the antigay propaganda that created it had awakened a sleeping giant in American politics. Gays and lesbians came out in droves all across the nation, determined to never again be deemed strangers in their own land.