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Why does gay marriage keep losing at the ballot box? (WaPo writers asks and tries to explain)
Washington Post ^ | 05/09/2012 | Rachel Weiner

Posted on 05/10/2012 7:42:45 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Gay marriage is increasingly accepted across the country. More Americans support gay marriage (47 percent) than oppose it (43 percent), according to a recent Pew survey. In 2004, 60 percent of Americans opposed it in Pew data. Only 8 percent were strongly in favor. In 2004, a majority did not support gay marriage in any state; by 2010, a majority did in 17.

Yet 32 times since 1998, voters have gone to the polls and voted against gay marriage.* Thirty-eight states prohibit gay marriage in some fashion. Even in “blue” states like California, Oregon and Delaware, gay marriage bans stand. North Carolina’s Amendment One Tuesday night was just the latest in a long line of failures at the ballot box for proponents of gay marriage. (Support for bans is falling over time, according to HRC: in 2004 they passed on average 71 percent to 29 percent, but in 2008 the average was 57 percent to 43 percent.)

Gay marriage has had more success in courts and state legislatures. But still, only six states and the District of Columbia allow gay marriage.

What explains the discrepancy between the national movement toward legalization of gay marriage with the repeated failures of such measures at the ballot box? A lot of it comes down to timing.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: gaymarriage; homosexuality
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To: SeekAndFind

Why does [not so] gay marriage keep losing at the ballot box?

Because people know that when two boys or two girls embrace, the fun parts don’t fit.


41 posted on 05/10/2012 8:26:32 AM PDT by lurk
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To: yldstrk

“I don’t care. California and NY are depraved”

The United States isn’t a loose confederation of completely different countries that just happen to share borders like Europe.

We’re one nation, and if you say CA and NY are depraved, you’re saying the United States of America is depraved. And that may very well be. But it doesn’t let you and your goody-two-shoes state, whatever it is, off the hook. It makes it your problem.

So stop trying to distance yourself. You’re not better than CA/NY.


42 posted on 05/10/2012 8:26:53 AM PDT by Blue Ink
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To: SeekAndFind

cmon, everyone in the lamestream media has the answer to this one...

It’s because voters are STOOPID! they’re STOOPID! STOOPID STOOPID STOOPID STOOPID STOOPID!!!!!

Don’t believe me just wait and see the op-eds the day after Obama loses the election.


43 posted on 05/10/2012 8:38:15 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: hoagy62
Or do you suppose it could be

44 posted on 05/10/2012 8:40:22 AM PDT by mc5cents
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To: SeekAndFind

“the poll she (the writer) cites show that the majority of Americans AGREE with it... “

A poll is not a vote.


45 posted on 05/10/2012 8:47:05 AM PDT by servo1969
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To: Blue Ink

“We’re one nation, and if you say CA and NY are depraved, you’re saying the United States of America is depraved. And that may very well be. But it doesn’t let you and your goody-two-shoes state, whatever it is, off the hook. It makes it your problem.

So stop trying to distance yourself. You’re not better than CA/NY.”

Jeez. Someone must have touched a nerve.


46 posted on 05/10/2012 8:50:13 AM PDT by servo1969
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To: MamaTexan
A LOT of it comes down to gays going from wanting to have privacy in their bedrooms, to wanting 'tolerance' of their lifestyle in public to now demanding legal endorsement of it.

Not a minor point...and one that won't show up in the type of polling done on this issue. By a large margin, the majority of people are accepting of their gay family members, friends and co-workers. They're just not interested in the details. And this is where the militant gay activists weigh in. Their goal is to have elementary schools put on rainbow pride parades in your neighborhood with mandatory attendance. Anyone caught not throwing fabulous confetti gets sent to the Village People tolerance camp.

These votes are about a line in the sand...and are largely out of self defense. It's heterosexuals who just want to be left alone.

47 posted on 05/10/2012 8:54:12 AM PDT by Tex-Con-Man (T. Coddington Van Voorhees VII 2012 - "Together, I Shall Ride You To Victory")
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To: SeekAndFind

Sadly, Gay marriage will become accepted as law of the land under the pretense of “civil rights” If Obama is elected again I hope a bloody revolution starts so we can have some hope...My first post. I have been a lurker for years and have enjoyed reading everyones comments but now I must get involved more.


48 posted on 05/10/2012 8:58:03 AM PDT by AmonAmarth (Wherever you go...There you are)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Primaries, like the one in North Carolina last night, are particularly low turnout affairs— giving opponents to gay marriage the edge.”

The leftists are OK with low turnout when the result is a millage increase! In fact, they hope for low turnouts when tax increases are an issue.


49 posted on 05/10/2012 9:00:22 AM PDT by CSM (Keeper of the Dave Ramsey Ping list. FReepmail me if you want your beeber stuned.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I don’t think there is any big mystery! When we get to vote on our values, most Americans will vote to retain our Judeo-Christian morals. It’s only when we don’t have a choice that the crazies get to erode our standards. For instance, do you think that The Ten Commandments would be taken down from any courtroom if the people could vote on it?


50 posted on 05/10/2012 9:08:49 AM PDT by myrabach
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To: SeekAndFind
“We are not seeing amendments heading to the ballot at the level we once did because marriage equality, and LGBT equality in general, is not the wedge issue it once was,” said Human Rights Campaign spokesman Paul Guequierre.

Hmm.. Or, maybe it has something to do with how 38 states have already banned it, 6 have passed something for it. Maybe my math is wrong, but that only leaves 6 more states that haven't done anything about it yet. Seems to me the tide would be slowing down now, too.
51 posted on 05/10/2012 9:17:11 AM PDT by Svartalfiar
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To: Blue Ink

yeah, I actually think it is a problem of urban(e) versus not urban and the urbans think they know best...

btw............I’m in the flyover zone


52 posted on 05/10/2012 9:38:36 AM PDT by yldstrk ( My heroes have always been cowboys)
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