Gay Marriage and the 2008 election
The Washington Blade asked me to write an Op-ed on the results of the election just concluded. So, bleary-eyed on Wednesday morning, I offered my thoughts, just in time for their deadline that day. They have now posted it on their web-site. I believe DC readers can find a dead-tree copy at news stands around the capital area.
Here’s a taste:
IF YOU LOOK at the election returns, it seems to have been a bad day for gay issues. Popular initiatives amending state constitutions to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, thus blocking recognition of same-sex marriage, passed in Arizona, California and Florida. Arkansas voters banned gay couples from adopting children.
But, look deeper at those numbers and at the two presidential campaigns and you see a sign of how far we’ve come. The demographic breakdown on Proposition 8 provides a key indicator of a very real social change. Voters under 30 opposed the initiative by margin of 3-2, the identical margin by which voters 65 and older favored it.
We can also measure our progress by comparing the results of this year’s initiative with a similar one in 2000. That year, 61 percent of Californians voted to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. This week, only 52 percent did.
To read the rest, just click here.
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The margin of victory might well have been larger had the proposition been differently worded, i.e. presenting a ‘No’ to same-sex marriage rather than a ‘Yes’ to amend the state constitution. Though difficult to measure, some voters might have thought a ‘No’ vote meant ‘No to same-sex marriage’.
Comment by Ignatius — November 7, 2008 @ 2:30 pm - November 7, 2008
Allow me to go off topic with regards to Prop 8. That’s all anybody seems to talk about. But what about the adoption ban in Arkansas? What will happen to the many unmarried couples who already adopted children? Will state officials come knocking & snatch their kids away? Or will they have to drop them off at an undisclosed location? Passage of all these anti-gay laws may make the social conservatives feel better, but they will be tearing apart real families. A legal morass also awaits same-sex couples in California. Are those 18,000 couples validly married or not?
Comment by Jimbo — November 8, 2008 @ 10:55 am - November 8, 2008
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