Wednesday, May 28, 2008

California Gay Ban Shock


There. I can sensationalize too. Check that headline.

The truth is not far off. A statewide poll in California reports that for the first time ever, more than half the voters favor same-sex marriage. With a November plebiscite intended to halt the pending SSMs there, that's bad news for the haters.

As the San Jose Mercury News added:
An almost identical result was recorded in the random survey of whether voters favor an amendment to the state constitution that will likely appear on the November ballot, which seeks to define marriage as between a man and a woman: Fifty-one percent opposed that proposal, the survey reported, while 43 percent approved of the restrictive amendment.
Decidedly unlike the 61% pre-SSM anywhere vote of 2000 in Proposition 22, the anti-gay/anti-marriage equality forces pushing this amendment could well lose this vote.

The poll of 1,052 registered voters on the amendment started two days after the state Supreme Court ruling, when emotions were high and the anti forces should have had their best shot at backlash. The poll takers noted the importance of young voters, who are largely without the anti-homosexual prejudices of many of their parents.

Since the first such poll there in 1977, there has been a pretty steady shift toward approval. There will be many more polls before November and the related claims by all sides of the issue should be varied and confusing. For the moment, let's just leave it as the boat is sailing and most of the people on the dock are pretty old.

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