Posted on 08/22/2011 4:01:22 AM PDT by Kaslin
One of the few issues on which opinion has moved left over the last few years is same-sex marriage. In 1996, Gallup found that Americans opposed it by a 68 percent to 27 percent margin. Last May, Gallup found Americans in favor by 53 percent to 45 percent. That's a huge change in 15 years.
Other polls have shown similar movement. Pew Research reported last week that 45 percent favored same-sex marriage and 46 percent were opposed -- a dead heat. Pew polls in 2008 and 2009 found only 35 percent to 40 percent in favor.
This is an issue on which the differences between age groups are as large as any I can remember. In the May Gallup poll, 70 percent of those under age 35 favored same-sex marriage. Only 39 percent of those over 55 agreed.
So while opinion on one controversial cultural issue, abortion, has not changed much, opinion on same-sex marriage has changed vastly.
Why? One reason is probably that as people learn that friends and relatives are gay, they become more sympathetic to gay rights. We see a similar change in voters' willingness to elect openly gay candidates to Congress and other offices.
But increasing support for same-sex marriage causes problems for politicians. When two-thirds of voters were opposed, it didn't: Almost everyone opposed it. Possible exception: Barack Obama, running for state Senate in a university-dominated district in 1996.
As a candidate for U.S. senator and president, Obama said he opposed same-sex marriage. As president, he says he still does, but his opinion is "evolving."
This may reflect a split between Democratic core constituencies. Affluent liberals overwhelmingly favor same-sex marriage. But most black voters are opposed.
In a 2008 referendum in California, 70 percent of blacks voted against same-sex marriage. A same-sex marriage bill was defeated this year in Maryland after black Democratic legislators opposed it. Same-sex marriage would be legal in California and Maryland were it not for opposition by black voters.
Mainstream media reporters pepper Republican presidential candidates with questions about the issue but seldom ask Obama about it. But if it's a fair question for Republicans, it's a fair question for Democrats, as well.
The problem for Republican politicians is not that opposition to same-sex marriage antagonizes gay voters. According to exit polls in the last three presidential elections, gays and lesbians made up just 3 percent of the electorate, and they were one of the few groups that voted for John McCain in 2008 in larger numbers than had voted for George W. Bush in 2004.
The Republicans' problem is young voters. Huge majorities of them favor same-sex marriage, and for most of them it's simply a no-brainer. They must have been turned off if they were watching the Republican presidential candidates vie with each other in opposing it in the Fox News-Washington Examiner debate in Iowa.
The constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage that they supported is never going to get a two-thirds vote in Congress or be ratified by three-quarters of state legislatures. Unless the Supreme Court rules there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, this is an issue that is going to be decided by the states.
Opponents of same-sex marriage argue that it would weaken the institution of the family. Certainly there are problems there: Rising percentages of children are raised by one parent or none, and nearly 50 percent of teenage children in non-college households did not live with both parents. Yet outcomes for children raised in two-parent families are far better than for those who are not.
But as one who favors same-sex marriage for reasons set out in Jonathan Rauch's 2004 book "Gay Marriage," I think the institution of the family is less threatened by a few people who want to get married than by the very many more people who get divorced or who have children without getting married at all.
In any case, we now have an experiment going on. Some 11 percent of Americans live in the six states and the District of Columbia that allow same-sex marriage. That would rise to 23 percent if California voters, who narrowly rejected it, switch. Other states may follow. On the other hand, states where blacks and white evangelical Protestants form a majority are unlikely to accept it any time soon.
We will be able to see how things work out and make judgments, without much need for guidance from our presidents or presidential candidates.
Debauchery is mainstream.
Marriage is between a man and a woman, as God instituted it.
What homosexuals have is a government-instituted counterfeit, so they need to come up with a different name for it.
No Its Not.
Black voters may oppose homosexual marriage by a large margin but that’s not why they support Obama. I doubt they’d stop voting for him even if he did come out for it. They vote for him because he promises free stuff to them, and he delivers.
The Left has a real problem understanding a “right.” A right is something that is inalienable and cannot be legislated away by men.
Self-defense is a right. Freedom of speech is a right. Freedom to practice a religion of your choosing is a right. These are things that are self-evident and cannot be usurped by laws, no matter how much they threaten you with incarceration.
That being said, since marriage between homosexuals is currently not acceptable to American law (whereas two men or two women cannot legally be married), “gay marriage” cannot, under any circumstances, be a right.
Marriage, however, is a sacrament in the Catholic church and a religious rite almost universally known and accepted around the world by all cultures and religions. It is a sacred promise between two people to live life as one and to procreate and raise children in the eyes of God.
You tell a stranger in Turkey that you’re married and this is your husband or wife, they’ll understand. You tell another stranger in Pakistan that the effeminate Tom Selleck lookalike next to you is your wife, and you likely won’t make it out of there with your head intact.
(Article) The problem for Republican politicians is not that opposition to same-sex marriage antagonizes gay voters.
The problem is gay political money, which Adam Nagorney of The New York Times told Charlie Rose is now a Niagara -- "simply huge" in his words.
The problem is under-the-radar gay PAC's sandbagging down-ballot family-values candidates in rural and small-town elections across the country, cutting future conservative leaders off at the knees. You can just bet they're busy trying to cut down Sarah and Michele.
The problem is closeted power-gays running backstabbing campaigns and cabals inside the top ranks of the GOP, even in the RNC's inner sanctums.
Yeah, there are a lot of problems with gays, for anyone who isn't friendly to the gay political conspiracy.
Keep in mind that Michael Barone was regularly pimping Rudy Giuliani (pro-abortion, gun-grabbing, gay-marriage supporting) as a prospective Republican nominee in 2008. He is hardly a conservative.
Any system that deliberatley and necessarily creates children that are severed from an intimate relationship with one or more of their biological parents, is not a benefit to the institution of the family. It is one thing for a child to become an orphan by circumstance. It is another thing entirely to wilfully, by design, create one. It is the epitome of selfishness.
Star Parker is a breath of fresh air. She writes the articles that the rest of us can’t write, because we have the wrong skin color.
He has lived inside the Beltway too long.
31 states put it up for a vote. 31 states rejected gay marriage. Yep, it’s going mainstream.
“Same-Sex Marriage Moving Toward the Mainstream”
And America moves toward judgement.
NO!
It’s being rammed down our throat!
The 2 percenters want to appear “normal” and increase the pool of available children to seduce.
Gays can’t procreate by themselves, so there is no need to provide for a “stay at home” goof!
There is no societal good derived from promoting the lifestyle, via financial or statutory incentives.
Why is less than 2, maybe 3 percent of the population dictating to us that we have to have same sex marriages? I hate to tell everybody, but most of the people in this country will never accept them for their behavior, no matter how much they try to force it on us. It has nothing to do with love, benefits, acceptance, or behavior, and everything to do with pushing an agenda.
Back in graduate school, the school rag ran a letter to the editor from a lesbian. She was arguing for gay “marriage” because her family just doesn’t accept her choice, and if she could legally marry her “lover” then her family would realize that being gay is normal, because normal people get married.
Beyond the fact that this girl has no acquaintance with logical thought, what stands out here is that the gay “marriage” issue, at least for this girl, has nothing to do with love. It’s about trying to find self-acceptance for choosing a lifestyle that is not normal.
If gays got what they say they want, and gay “marriage” were accepted just like real marriage, in every aspect, the fact remains that gay still isn’t normal. So, at that point, what do gays do to try to convince themselves that they really are normal? What *can* they do?
Keep in mind that not so long ago NOBODY was even suggesting it, I have know idea how the vote usually goes. Is it like 40% for it? 35%? Not too comforting that is goes from zero to actually on ballots and getting significant support. Drives me nut when freepers brag that it goes down on ballots. Give it another few years.
It’s just the American people; they lack the ability to discern.
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