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Loading ...Poll: Support For Anti-Gay Calif. Amendment Widens
10.21.2008 4:15pm EDT
(San Francisco, California) A new poll, taken for a Catholic group opposed to same-sex marriage, shows that support is widening for a proposed amendment to ban gay unions in California.
The survey, conducted by Marist College Institute of Public Opinion, found the proposed amendment now has a 9 percentage point lead among likely voters — 52 percent to 43 percent.The poll was taken between September 28 and October 5 for the Knights of Columbus, which has helped raise millions of dollars to promote the proposed amendment.
The sample included 1,008 likely voters in California, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
The survey shows that support for the amendment, known as Proposition 8, leads in every region of California except the Bay Area, where 58% are opposed.
Statewide it has 53 percent support among men and 51 percent among women. Among whites, 51 percent said they supported the amendment while 57 percent of Latinos support it.
Among voters over the age of 45, Prop 8 has the support of 59 percent of those polled.
The highest level of opposition — 54 percent — came from people under the age of 45, and 54 percent of those who said they were unmarried.
A SurveyUSA poll taken earlier this month for four TV stations across the state found that 47 percent of likely voters would support the measure with 42 percent opposing it.
Monday more than a dozen pastors who support same-sex marriage stood on the steps of San Francisco city hall to voice their opposition to the amendment.
They also announced that more than 2,200 faith leaders from across the country have signed an open letter to religious leaders calling for the recognition of same-sex marriage.
LGBT groups have been struggling to match the millions of dollars raised by supporters of the amendment for television ads in the two weeks leading up to the election.
Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has spent $100,000 of her own money to buy television airtime to urge Californians to vote against the proposed amendment. DeGeneres married her long time partner, actress Portia de Rossi, in August.
In 2004 Newsom began allowing marriage licenses to be issued to same-sex couples in San Francisco. The state took the mayor to court, arguing he had overstepped his authority, and the California Supreme Court agreed. As a result, the more than 8,000 marriages that had been performed were declared void.
The ruling, however, did not directly address the issue of the constitutionality of the state ban on same-sex marriage, and LGBT civil rights activists began a separate court action challenging the prohibition.
In May the court court ruled that denying same-sex couples the right to wed violated the California constitution.
Conservative groups began collecting enough signatures for the ballot measure. Recent polling suggests voters are closely divided over the amendment.
Mormons, Catholics and Evangelicals (and no doubt a smattering of Muslims here and there) are the main supporters of this ignorant and hateful proposition. They really do just love to wallow in their misery, don’t they.
My name is Mike, I am straight, I consider myself religious, I live in California, and I am absolutely outraged by the support for prop 8 I see around the community.
The way I see, people should look at it one of two ways.
1) Marriage is a state issue, and not a religious issue, and as such opinions of what the church thinks about same-sex marriage should not be an issue.
2) Marriage is a religious issue. If that is the case I pose these questions.
If church A is fundamentally opposed to same sex marriage does the government have a right to step in and say they need to allow homosexuals to marry in their church?
ABSOLUTELY NOT…but at the same token
If church B supports same-sex marriage does the government have right to step in and say they can’t be allowing the marriages to take place?
AGAIN…ABSOLUTELY NOT…
I feel the conservative religious sectors ignores this. Personally I think religious should have a very small say in the government, but even if you do, isn’t clear that Prop 8 prevents certain religious organizations from practicing marriage as they see fit.
What I hate the most is the ads, and the argument by the prop 8 supporters who claim:
Statistics show children growing up in One Woman One Man households are more likely to be successful, and children in same sex marriages are more likely to become homosexual, and prop 8 is about the children.
Can’t the same statistics be applied to race. I am sure statistics show children growing up in White households are more likely to be successful than children in Black or Hispanic households and that children of black marriages are more likely to become black…So to protect our children should we next outlaw black marriage.
I have been a registered voter for eight years now, and I have never been so adamant about a proposition or measure as I am with my disgust for prop 8.
Again, I am straight, I am religious, but prop 8 is apocryphal.
I am a Marylander, I contributed a thousand of my own dollars to help the fight against Prop 8 not even my own state. So what are you other readers doing to help now that the polls are against us gays? I am anxious to know that gay Californians are not partying and sitting on their hands and doing something about their own antigay marriage problem.
ARe they going to sit there as just let the opponents steamroll them?
So goes California so goes the rest of the USA! State by state until none are spared.
This Marist poll was also conducted by the Knights of Columbus, and was incredibly leading. It asked, for example, if the respondent’s opinion would change if they knew that gays would retain all their rights as domestic partners, or if they knew that ‘homosexual marriage’ would be a mandatory topic in public schools. It was propoganda disguised as a poll. http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/news/releases/detail/548056.html
Morgan from Maryland,
thank you for your support!!! I am outraged that we are being outspent on this. We are heading towards losing a fundamental right in part because most of us can’t be bothered to contribute their time and money to this. If we lose this, it shouldn’t be because of money or because we didn’t bother to talk to our neighbors. If you are a Californian who cares about equality for LGBT folks at all, please make a contribution to the No On 8 campaign and talk to your friends and neighbors about the importance of defeating this terrible proposition.
What I am really curious about and I have not seen discussed in any article is, what happens next if this passes? Before the election materials were printed the pro same sex marriage lawyers tried to stop the proposition stating it was a revision not an amendment. Revisions require larger percentages to pass and the state senate also. But the court said they wouldn’t consider that unless the prop passes. What do legal scholars think is this is a valid fighting point? I hope so because I am newly married and don’t want to see our rights taken away.
Why are we trying to mainstream? Marriage is an atavistic institution anyway, a throw-back to when one person could own another. Government should either get out of the business of marriage entirely and leave it to the private sector, or else outlaw it completely, the way it outlawed slavery. Why waste your money pursuing government acknowledgment of your relationship? Do you really need their positive reinforcement to feel good about yourselves? I won’t get married even if they hand me a certificate on a silver platter, which they won’t. So face it, mainstream America needs enemies to hate and fear (they’re addicted to the rush they get from hatred and fear), so tell ‘em to F-off and die, and live your life free of their delusional notions.
There’s a really good reason why the Federal government and many states can only alter their constitutions via a super majority or through conventions that require the change to pass through multiple votes of both the legislature and citizens.
If it’s the job of the courts to protect the minority from abuse by the majority or those in power, such a method of changing a constitution reinforces that role.
Unfortunately, California is one of those states that didn’t have the foresight to protect their Constitution from change by a simple majority whim in single election.
ANYONE WITTNESING THE LINES OF HAPPY COUPLES LINING UP TO GRAB THE GOLDEN RING OF MARRIAGE AT SAN FRANCISCO’S CITY HALL COULD NOT POSSIBLY VOTE APPROVAL FOR PROP 8. I KNOW. I WAS ONE HALF OF ONE OF THOSE COUPLES EAGERLY STANDING IN LINE ON THE 10TH OF OCTOBER. TO BE A PART OF THIS MOVEMENT FOR EQUALITY AND SELF ACTUALIZATION WAS IN SOME WAYS EVEN MORE POWERFUL AND MOVING THAN OUR CEREMONY ITSELF. —NOW ‘LIVING HAPPILY EVERAFTER’ IN SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO.
If this passes, it’ll go back to the courts. And the Supreme Court might declare all civil marriages in California null and void.
Since one constitutional amendment cannot possibly contradict another, it would seem rather obvious that the institution of marriage itself has become “unconstitutional” by virtue of the fact that the ironclad definition of marriage now violates the equal protection clause (and targets a suspect class). If the high court were consistent with the arguments in its original ruling in the marriage case, then (1) either a full constitutional convention – including participation from both houses of the state legislature – must be called to deal with the inconsistencies or (2) civil marriage must go the way of the dodo. Those who vote for Prop. 8 might be invalidating their own marriages.
Of course, the Supreme Court could throw their own logic out the window and decline to deal with the issue. But if Chief Justice George decides to “raise the stakes,” there’s a definite possibility this will lead to a constitutional crisis.
I’m a high school student and thus, all of the money I make goes to my gas tank, but that does not mean I’m doing nothing. I see Yes on Prop 8 signs everywhere and it sickens me, so I have started with my GSA a No on Prop 8 “campaign” in the small scale. We are planning a couple of things and we are trying to make voters see the human side of Prop 8 and how it will turn us, the community’s children, and others into second class citizens. Prop 8 is just legal discrimintation. What comes next? slavery? Gays aren’t human after all.
So is this considered reliable–Marist is relatively well-known, but was it not a push poll?
Morgan – Thank you for your contribution to FIGHT against Prop. 8 in California!!! I too live out of State, Arizona and have donated some of my money to NO on Prop. 8. I have also contacted ALL of my friends and family in California, explained to the the situation and not to believe the blatant LIES that the yes on Prop. 8 are spewing in their advertising.
Melody – Thank you and all of your friends in the GSA for doing your part to FIGHT for Equality and CIVIL Justice! It seems like the younger generation is our only hope for the future. Because the older generation refuses to let go of their hatred and disgust for people that are born “gay”. They won’t believe science, but will trust a 2,000+ year old document. Well, at least the parts that suit them and toss out the parts they don’t like.
California – Vote “NO” on Prop. 8!
Arizona – Vote “NO” on Prop. 102! AGAIN!
Florida – Vote “NO” on Amendment 2!
Connecticut – Vote “NO” on Question 1!
Did some digging, THIS WAS A PUSH POLL.
http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2008/10/21/4077
So with leading questions, they were able to get to 52% support.
It’s misleading for 365gay to put this headline up there, because the questions asked in this Catholic-funded poll were towards a desired result, unlike those done for news organizations.
Not saying that the haters won’t still win, but this poll is designed to achieve a result and dishearten those who are committed to No on 8.
Morgan, thank you for your financial support to the cause. Being from Baltimore myself, I threw in a few bucks, but not nearly as much as you did.
In any case, what we outside California can do is talk about this issue to our friends, neighbors and relatives. Forward this story and others to our friends and ask them to spread it like wildfire in cyberspace.
That this poll was taken for a Catholic group makes it suspect. I’d like to see neutral pollsters survey the state. Then we’ll know what’s happening.
Go to Equality California’s website for suggestions on how to help. To lose this vote would be a massive blow to justice, and the religious right will only be emboldened to beat up on a small group of people even more than they do now.