Subscribe to Breaking NewsVanasco: Blame religion, not race
Researchers, in conjunction with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, released a report today that said that people who voted against gay marriage in California had four things in common:
1. They attended religious services weekly
2. They were Republicans
3. They were conservatives
4. They were born before World War II
It is these factors, rather than race or gender, that made the difference – the researchers say that no more than 58 percent of African-Americans voted yes on Prop 8, putting them in line with all other ethnic groups.
We’ll have a news story on this with more details later (and a link to the report), but I thought this was important, and that we should get something up about it quickly.
There was a long conversation on the call about what the next steps might be. One interesting discovery – the vote wasn’t influenced by whether someone knew a gay person. One researcher made the point that opposition to gay marriage isn’t personal – it’s partsian. If you’re Republican, religious, conservative, you will be against it, no matter how many gay people you wave to at the grocery store.
Nevertheless, folks at the Task Force thinks that LGBT Christians should try outreach in their own churches. They say that substantial conversations may have an impact. And they say we need to make stronger, better, more frequent arguments to religious leaders about how it is a moral good to support all families, not just straight ones.
Your thoughts?
I live in Massachusetts, which has legal gay marriage. During that long contentious battle to secure those rights (seventeen votes of the legislature) I had occasion to canvass heavily in my own neighborhood, which has lots of African American residents. In every case, those who were religious opposed gay marriage and those who weren’t, felt that the issue was one of civil rights equality, and of course they supported it. It always came down to religion, every time. And if it did, then there was nothing I could say that would change anything. You can’t argue with a holy roller. Religion is the enemy of equality. I have to apologize to those many welcoming religious congregations who are rational, reasonable and fair-minded, but it’s true. Religion has a long history of oppression. Our founding fathers wisely tried to erect a wall of separation between church and state. This is why the fundies have chosen gay marriage as the battle they will die to win. Because it so clearly exemplifies the choice between scripture and statute. One is base on reason, the other on blind obedience. Unfortunately, the communities of color, having long been ignored and suppressed by the majority white community in America, have had to lean on religion as their sole support for help in troubled times. And with that support has come homophobia.
All of this information was out within 5 days of the vote. You could find statistics on all ages by decade, race, income, religion, education, age etc. All reporter had to do was look up the real statistics…No they just want to ’sell papers..with anything horrendous…but non-salient.
Religion is to blame for separating patterns of social behavior from their true purposes. Marriage has taken many forms over the thousands of years of human existence, from group marriage to our current single couple arrangement. We also know that some tribes in the Western hemisphere accepted homosexual unions, so they are not entirely absent in history.
All of these forms of marriage represent an “economic” contract between the partners designed to bring maximum advantage within existing conditions. That is why multiple marriage was practised in primitive times and is not necessary today.
Societies change over very long periods of time, a slow process that is greatly enhanced by the conservatism of religion.
Same-sex marriage is just the latest movement in social evolution. It cannot be discussed in these terms yet (even No on Prop 8 did not go there), because people are still hung up on the idea that marriage is some special union designed by God to create families and keep the human race going. That the human race would keep going just as well without marriage is ignored. And it kept going without religion as we know it for the best part of 100,000 years.
The Catholic Church reserves marriage for procreation within a family context. However, sex is permitted within marriage after a woman passes childbearing age, because the couple are married — a strangely circular and illogical reasoning. The same applies to couples who cannot have children. Because it lacks logic, the Church cannot see that there is no effective difference between a same-sex couple and a barren heterosexual couple. In both cases sex does not lead to procreation, but the barren couple represents a potential family as we have come to define it.
Now, “family” is another economic construct, having moved from the very extended family to the nuclear family in our society. Why the churches support this concept of family is difficult to fathom, because Jesus (nominally their leader) implies that the family is the whole of society. But this is not the only point at which the churches ignore Jesus. If they were really to care about what Jesus preached, they would not spend so much time equating morality with sexual activity alone. They would be in the vanguard of movements to change the political, social and economic landscapes in which we live. They would truly favor equality in all its forms.
So the way forward will have to be double-edged. One edge will have to cut away the sentimental nonsense around marriage and show it for what it is — an economic contract that places a number of responsibilities on the partners. The other edge will have to inflict necessary wounds on religion, playing on all the errors of the past, e.g. witch burning. I see this as essential, even though I attend church regularly.
The post-8 anger was about the fact that those folks who we thought’d support us didn’t.
Don’t think too many of us expected conservative, Republican, religious senior citizens to be “on board” with us on this one.
Capiche?
Check out this groups new idea for a protest: hold one on Facebook! The idea is for people to change their profile picture to an Equality message during inauguration week.
The goal is to reach out to Americans in new and creative ways to educate them about the important rights of marriage: the ability to file joint taxes, make medical decisions for a spouse, immigration rights, hospital visitation, exemption from estate taxes and many, many more.
http://www.equalitymatters.org
If we’re going to win future battles, it’s because we are educating, educating, educating.
When have Gay people not reach out to African Americans, when? Gay people, white gay people to be more precise, have always put aside their own civil rights to fight for those of African Americans. And once blacks have achieve them they want to excuse their bigotry with religion. Not one Gay blog or news source I have seen has done anything but bend over to defend them even after Prop 8 passed with seventy percent of their support ( yes! seventy according to CNN and they stand by it),even then you had gay people with no journalistic credibility saying things like it was only 50 percent of them that supported the hateful law. I’m sorry but I’m going to believe a legitimate news source like CNN first before I take seriously anything that some people with an eagerness of not offending African Americans(no matter at what cost to gays)have to say.
Another effete, useless opinion from the gay opinion industry. Go figure!
The final statement – Religion is truly the root of all evil.
I am so sick of people assuming that religious people are automatically anti-gay. The Bible says NOTHING about homosexuality. Do not fall for your propaganda-filled translations! Read the Bible in the original Hebrew, Greek, or Latin!
In Christianity, God tells us to love each other.
THAT’S the final statement.
LOL@sli “I am so sick of people assuming that religious people are automatically anti gay.”
The snag with the Bible and homosexuality is that even though the Bible either treats same-gender sex as an act of idolatry (”Abomination” in Lev. 20:13) or a punishment for idolatry (Rom. 1:26ff)–bad logic–it does condemn such sexual activity, which it’s hard to talk Conservatives out of. But some of us know that the Bible doesn’t address homosexuality as it’s currently understood.
The only thing that will change the mionds of religious zealots is death…and the sooner, the better.
I wonder if 58% of gay people would vote to ban black marriages or interracial marriages? I think that is the difference.
It’s just strange to see a minority that has suffered the exact same thing less than 50 years ago willingly vote to do the same to another minority group.
Right, mikiy and sly. So be good christians and never have sex. Naughty activity.
Similarities in some aspects does not make them the same. Maybe we should own our own struggles instead of constantly hijacking the struggles of others in order to gain better ground.
“When have Gay people not reach out to African Americans, when? Gay people, white gay people to be more precise, have always put aside their own civil rights to fight for those of African Americans.” Wow, that is some dream world there. I keep hearing people say that but I’m still waiting for specific examples.
“Not one Gay blog or news source I have seen has done anything but bend over to defend them even after Prop 8 passed with seventy percent of their support”. – I guess there is strength in numbers because I have seen alot of truly bigoted comments by the same people who allegedly did so much for racial minorities and then try to excuse their bigotry and hatred as being legitimized by the results of exit polls. I mean seriously people, exit polls? Maybe it is just me, but I thought it was common knowledge how inaccurate those are. But then again I guess when you are looking for someone to blame it is easy to latch onto the first piece of inaccurate data available.