I’ve seen these charts over the last couple of days on the box and I’m not sure I quite agree with them.
My view on gay marriage is, why not. I don’t want to impose on anyone or any religious organisation and force them to marry gay people but there is no reason for that to impose on a non-catholics rights.
My problem with these charts that have been branded about is that in 2008 California voted on Prop 8 and gay marriage was voted down 52 to 48 (there abouts). California has to be one of the more liberal minded states in the US and if they couldn’t even vote for it, I can’t imagine some of those more conservate states coming even close to those stats.
Do you think maybe when people are asked in public that they might say that they support gay marriage but in the privacy of a voting booth they wouldn’t? I’m sure all 4 of my grandparents are not in favour of gay marriage and probably not my parents. On the other hand, the right wing/republican friends of mine here in the US who are around my age, they support gay marriage (again, maybe just in public though).
What do you think about the figures in the charts below?
6 Comments
beerdoc_colorado
i think you got it. its an age thingy.
SCguy84
Also, 2008 was an odd year. Racial minorities (namely African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos) came out in record numbers to support President Obama’s first election.
My grad school degree is in religious studies and as a part of my studies, I did look at socio-religious leanings of various groups. While on many issues, the African American and Hispanic communities are very liberal, on some, especially gay marriage, they tend to be very very conservative. It’s one of those interesting quirks. So while they were extremely liberal in their support of Obama, they were simultaneously rather conservative in their denial of gay marriage.
Dr. Phil
As a religious studies teacher, SCguy84, I’m glad to see you here and speaking up! 😉
Something else which was a factor in CA in ’08 was the millions of dollars spent by the Mormon and Catholic churches in anti-gay marriage advertisements that were patently false: that approving it would cause it to be taught in schools, taught to grade-school children, and would force religious organizations to marry same-sex couples even if they didn’t want to, etc. All of that isn’t true, and can’t be true even if same-sex marriages are allowed in a given state. Unfortunately, the other side didn’t have the money or the people on the ground to counteract those efforts, and so many people were indifferent about it because they assumed it would get approved that they didn’t turn out in as huge numbers as were needed, etc.
Of course, now that the issue is before the Supreme Court, it’s likely that Prop 8 will be struck down. So, we can hope it will be…
Personally, I’m not for marriage of any kind, and probably won’t get married to a male or a female ever in my life (no matter how much I like both of them!); but, I’m all for other people being given the rights to do whatever they like, and for there to be legal measures to protect that right and to make sure everyone is treated equally.
I’m far more interested in employment non-discrimination acts on a national level (which many pro-gay marriage politicians do not support) than gay marriage on a national level. No matter how much it might be nice to get gay married in any state of the union, there’s nothing stopping employers in many states or in the federal government at present from firing anyone they want to who does get gay married, and there are no legal measures in place that can challenge that decision on the part of employers in many jurisdictions.
swimmerboy722
I agree with Dr. Phil- the California Prop 8 vote was extremely manipulated by conservative Christian groups and in my opinion, doesn’t reflect the public’s beliefs.
It’s true that there are conservative states that would definitely not legalize gay marriage any time soon, but you can’t forget about population. Texas is really the only large conservative state by population, while most red states have relatively low populations for their size by land. The fact is that there may be a lot of conservative people in the country but most voters voted liberal this election.
I disagree with you people would say one thing in a poll and do another in the voting booth. I’m sure it happens, but not enough to consistently skew the polls. Also, opinion polls are fairly accurate because they survey large groups of people over large spans of time. Small quirks like someone lying about their opinion are ironed out because there are so many polls and so many different people participating.
You really can’t deny that support for gay marriage and gay rights in general are on the rise- not only do countless polls show this, but the states that legalized gay marriage and the new LGBT members of Congress speak to rising support for gay marriage. If you’re suspicious of the idea that more people supprot gay marriage, compare how people treat gay people to twenty, even ten years ago. It’s indisputable- support is going up.
Dave Evans
Thanks a bunch for the contributions guys, I wasn’t in the states at the time of the ’08 election and I appreciate the insight into Prop 8.
Dr. Phil, you used a word that I think sums up a bunch of society on gay marriage, indifference.
Obviously gay people want it, the religious right don’t want it, but most people sit in the middle and are indifferent about it.
Dave
aussiebumuk12
I find it staggering (in a good way) that a conservative government here in the UK are the ones to pass legislation for gay marriage!!