Let’s get the easy lifting out of the way: if you leave a comment about how I’m racist, look in the mirror please because the racist is you. If at any point in this rant you feel like I’m talking about all white gays and lesbians, then it’s time for glasses or a reading comprehension class. If you need to announce how I’m protecting my peeps, brothers and sisters, or whatever racial solidarity phrase you overheard in some club, suppress it. Please. Lastly no sharing what your black boyfriend, best friend, co-worker, neighbor and/or favorite singer told you about black American life (this also includes any theorizing about “the down-low”).

We reported yesterday about a Quinnipiac University poll that was promising for same-sex marriage advocates in New York. New York voters are evenly split on the topic of gay marriage. Unfortunately (look that word up) under closer inspection, the numbers show a troubling racial divide.

“Same-sex marriage? The state splits down the middle, with white voters in favor, black voters opposed and Hispanic voters just about even,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.”

According to the numbers, white New Yorkers  narrowly approve gay marriage 47 to 45 percent. Black voters are opposed 57 to 35 percent; Hispanics also stood in opposition but their numbers were not as drastic at 48 to 45.

If we focus solely on the black community, there is no way to prettify the numbers. It would have been interesting to see how those stats broke down with religion attendance, but even if religion is taken into account the figures mirror what I’ve been arguing for awhile: secular gays and religious blacks have very little to say to each other. Based on many of the comments left here, I have doubts about the chasm being breached but that’s neither here nor there.

How to reverse the trend among New York’s blacks? Don’t know really. Some black folk are not going to budge on this issue; however, these are the four arguments I would repeat over and over and over again: 1) gay marriage has zippo to do with the individual decisions made by churches and denominations, 2) the whole debate about marriage for same sex couples is part of the freedom march that began when this country was founded, 3) same sex marriage makes life easier for black gay and lesbian couples, and 4) there are issues in the black community (unemployment and high-school graduation rates) that are more critical to black folk than who is getting a certificate from Empire State city halls.

What won’t work is trying to sell the “you blacks have been oppressed and you need to understand my struggle” line. Oppression does not equal enlightenment about others. It just means you are at the bottom looking up.

In recent weeks, Vermont and Iowa have legalized same-sex marriage, while New York, Maine and New Hampshire have taken steps in that direction. Polls show younger Americans are far are more tolerant on the issue than are older generations. For now at least, the public is much more focused on the troubled economy and two wars than on social issues.

In addition, over the past decade, public acceptance of gay marriage has changed dramatically.

A Quinnipiac University poll released last week found that a majority of people questioned, by a 55-38 percent margin, oppose gay marriage. But it also found that people, by a 57-38 percent margin, support civil unions that would provide marriage-like rights for same-sex couples, indicating a shift toward more acceptance.

With congressional elections next year, Republicans, Democrats and nonpartisan analysts say the changes benefit Democrats, whose bedrock liberals favor gay unions, and disadvantage Republicans, whose conservative base insists that marriage be solely between a man and a woman.

“This is not a sea change. This is a tide that is slowly rising in favor of gay marriage,” creating a favorable political situation for Democrats and ever-more difficulty for Republicans, said David McCuan, a political scientist at Sonoma State University in California.

Democrats have a broader base filled with more accepting younger voters, as well as flexibility on the issue. Hard-core liberals support gay marriage, while others, including President Barack Obama, take a more moderate position of civil unions and defer to states on gay marriage.

Conversely, the GOP base is older, smaller and more conservative. Republicans have no place to shift on the issue but to the left, because the party has been identified largely with its rock-solid opposition to gay marriage and civil unions. Also, the GOP has no titular head setting the tone on this or other issues.

In recent months, proponents have used state legislatures and court challenges to legalize gay marriage, mindful that the majority of the public still isn’t supportive and successful ballot measures would be less likely.

Because of high court rulings, gay marriage now is legal in Iowa, Massachusetts and Connecticut. A Vermont law allowing gay marriage will take effect in September. New Hampshire and New Jersey, where same-sex couples can enter into civil unions, are considering gay marriage legislation. So are Maine and New York.

Political insiders no doubt will pay close attention to developments in Iowa and New Hampshire, early presidential voting states, to see how the issue plays out in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election.

Despite the changes, gay-marriage opponents are buoyed by a voter initiative in California that blocked the state from allowing gay marriage, and by the 29 states where voters have approved state constitutional amendments banning gay marriage.

For years, the GOP and its conservative base has used its opposition to gay marriage to drive Republican turnout in elections and marginalize party moderates. Measures defining marriage between a man and a woman that were on ballots in a slew of states in 2004 were widely credited with boosting the number of conservative voters, giving Republican George W. Bush an edge over Democrat John Kerry.

But there’s been conflicting evidence since then over just how much that contributed to Bush’s victory.

What’s certain is that opposition to gay marriage for decades has been a potent tool for the GOP in rallying social conservatives. They are critical to the party’s grass-roots organizing and small-dollar fundraising.

But as more states accept gay and lesbian unions, there is a debate inside the party over how it should position itself on the issue. The dispute is just one part of a broader struggle within the out-of-power GOP over its identity and whether it should focus on rallying conservatives or attracting supporters from across the political spectrum.

Some prominent Republicans are backing away from cut-and-dried opposition, and some party operatives say it’s only a matter of time before others follow suit because the country is changing.

Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah, a Mormon who is a potential presidential candidate, backed a 2004 constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. But he says he favors civil unions and extending some legal rights to gay couples.

Last month, John McCain’s chief campaign strategist, Steve Schmidt, told the Log Cabin Republicans: “Even though a majority of Republicans remain opposed to it, we must respect dissent on the subject within the party and encourage debate over it, and should not reject out of hand and on specious grounds … that the party might be in the wrong on the question.”

The shifting landscape is emboldening the gay-rights’ movement, a pillar of the Democratic Party’s left flank.

“We are at a tipping point moment,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a leading advocate of gay rights. “The lingering minority that continues to think that the way to win is to hold GLBT people up as a wedge could not be more out of touch.”

The CBS News/New York Times poll found that 42 percent of Americans believe same-sex couples should have the right to marry.  Last month a CBS/Times poll found support at 33 percent.

The new poll is the highest support for gay marriage since CBS news began asking public opinion in 2004 the network said on Tuesday. 

The new poll also found that opposition to gay marriage is on a steady decline with 28 percent saying same-sex couples should have no legal rights. Only 25 percent told CBS/Times pollsters that gays should have civil unions but not marriage.

CBS reported that support for gay marriage remains strongest among people who identify as liberals, with 69 percent supporting same-sex marriage.  

The poll was conducted among a random sample of 973 adults nationwide and interviewed by telephone between April 22 and 26. The margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points.

The timing of the poll was significant.  It came after three key same-sex marriage advances – the Iowa Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriage in that state, the Vermont legislature’s legalizing of gay marriage and the announcement by New York Gov. David Paterson (D) calling for legalized same-sex marriage in that state.

Gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and Iowa.  Legislation is before the legislatures in Maine and New Hampshire. In California, the Supreme Court is expected to rule in the coming weeks on the legality of Prop 8 the voter approved measure banning gay marriage in that state. 

Iowa’s Supreme Court ruling went into effect Monday with nearly 400 same-sex couples obtaining marriage licenses.  Dozens of them were able to find judges willing to waive the state’s three-day waiting and wed.

(San Francisco, California) A new poll of Californians shows that LGBT rights groups still have a lot of work ahead of them in gaining acceptance of equal marriage.

If the state Supreme Court upholds Proposition 8, the measure adopted by voters in November banning gay marriage, there is increasing speculation that rights groups will attempt to place a repeal question on the ballot, possibly in 2010.

A Field Poll released Monday shows that prospective voters remain deeply divided over the issue of same-sex unions.  Forty-eight percent said they would vote to repeal the proposition. Forty-seven percent would vote to maintain the ban.  Five percent are undecided.

When the 3.5 percent margin of error is factored in, it is a dead heat.

In November, Prop 8 passed with just 52 percent support.

The new Field Poll also raised the question of marriage versus civil unions.

Forty-five percent said same-sex couples should be allowed to marry. Thirty-four percent favored civil unions and 19 percent said gay and lesbian couples should not receive any state recognition. Only two percent of those polled had no opinion.

The release of the poll came as Equality California, the state’s largest LGBT rights group was announcing a new team to fight for same-sex marriage.  The group hired Marc Solomon, the founder of MassEquality, who successfully fought two attempts to put a same-sex marriage ban in the Massachusetts constitution, and Andrea Shorter, a co-founder and director of And Marriage For All. Shorter will help build bridges between gays and people of color and faith.

Earlier this month the California Supreme Court heard arguments challenging the way Prop 8 was placed on the ballot. The court has 90 days to issue a ruling.

In 2004,  San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.  Some 8,000 couples exchanged vows before the state Supreme Court ruled Newsom had acted illegally.

The court nullified the marriages, but said its ruling dealt only with Newsom’s actions.  The justices said at the time the question of whether barring same-sex couples from marrying violated the state’s equal protection clause of its constitution was a separate matter.

Legal challenges on the constitutional question were begun almost immediately. Three separate suits ultimately were wrapped together into a single case.

In March 2005, a Superior Court judge in San Francisco ruled that the law denying same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, but the ruling was stayed while the state appealed.

In October 2006, the California Court of Appeal in a split decision overturned Kramer’s ruling.

Last May, the state Supreme Court upheld the appeal court ruling and some 18,000 same-sex couples were married before Prop 8 was approved in November.

(Washington) New polls taken in two of the country’s most socially conservative states indicate a shift in attitudes toward LGBT people.

A Florida poll shows a majority of prospective voters in that state believe the state’s ban on gay adoption should be repealed and that there should be legal recognition of same-sex relationships, though they disagreed on whether that should be marriage or civil unions.

The other poll, in Utah, found that a majority support LGBT civil rights.

Both states in recent years have seen a large influx of new residents, primarily from the Northeast and California.

In Florida, the poll by Quinnipiac University found that 55 percent favor  abolishing the state law that prohibits gays from adopting, while 39 percent said the law should be maintained.

When it came to same-sex relationships, 62 percent favor some sort of recognition, with 27 percent supporting marriage and 35 percent favoring civil unions. Only 31 percent said there should be no legal recognition of gay unions.

Democrats and independent voters were most gay-supportive while Republicans and white evangelical Christians were most negative.

Florida voters in November amended the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. A legal challenge to the state ban on gays adopting children is expected to be heard by the Florida Supreme Court later this year.

In Utah, a poll commissioned by Equality Utah found that 63 percent support gay legal protections including some rights for same-sex couples.

Utah bans same-sex marriage. Bills to bar discrimination against gays in employment and housing and to provide for domestic partnerships and guarantee partner hospital visitation rights are expected to be considered this year by the legislature.

The survey found that 62 percent believe it should be illegal to fire someone for being gay and 57 percent said it should be illegal to deny housing to someone for being gay.

On the issue of partner rights, 73 percent said they would support health insurance coverage for a partner or other designated adult for state employees. Utahans, however, are not ready for same-sex marriage.  Only 20 percent said they supported gay marriage.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the poll was the fact 66 percent of those surveyed identified their religious belief as Mormon. Equality Utah, however, did not provide a breakdown of how LDS respondents answered individual questions in its survey. 

On the eve of his Jan. 20 inauguration, the poll found that 65 percent of those surveyed believe Obama will be an “above average” president or better, including 28 percent who think he will be “outstanding.”

According to previous pre-inauguration polls, just 47 percent believed George W. Bush would be an “above average” or “outstanding” president when he entered his first term, 56 percent thought Bill Clinton would be “above average” or better and 38 percent thought George H.W. Bush would be. The earlier pre-inaugural numbers all came from the Gallup Poll, except for Clinton’s, which came from the ABC News/Washington Post poll.

With the U.S. facing the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression, the poll found broad optimism that Obama could help turn things around. Seventy-one percent of those polled said the economy will likely improve during the first year of his presidency; 65 percent said unemployment will go down; 72 percent said the stock market would be on the rise; and 63 percent said their personal economic situation would improve.

“He cannot not succeed. He has to succeed because the world really depends on him right now,” said Richard Kern, 51, who works in a home remodeling business in Bernalillo, N.M. “We’re all hanging in by the treads of our shoes, waiting for the economy to break. We need good news.”

Respondents also gave the president-elect high marks for his leadership skills and empathy, particularly for the concerns of the middle class.

Even Ronald Reagan, who won a landslide victory over President Jimmy Carter in 1980 during another period of economic uncertainty, was viewed more skeptically than Obama before his inauguration. At the time, 51 percent said Reagan would be a good or great president, according to the Gallup Poll.

The AP-GfK poll found widespread disapproval of Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush.

Sixty-one percent believe Bush will go down in history as a below average or poor president, including 31 percent of Republicans. Just 32 percent of Republicans say he will be remembered as above average.

Indeed, when asked why she believed Obama was likely to succeed, Lauri Raleigh, 48, of Hanover, Pa., replied, “Because he’s not Bush.”

Raleigh, a teacher and mother of three, said Obama “brings a different set of values, a different viewpoint to Washington, to the White House in particular, that we haven’t been there in the last eight years. His openness to other ideas, his willingness to take advice from other people is something that I think has been lacking in the presidency.”

The poll found solid support for Obama’s economic recovery plan, which he is crafting with congressional leaders and which is now projected to cost $825 billion. Fifty-five percent said they supported the plan, and 58 percent said they believed it would bring significant improvements to the economy.

Respondents did express concerns about the federal deficit, which is already projected to top $1 trillion even before the stimulus plan is enacted.

Still, 48 percent said it was important to stimulate the economy even if meant an increase in the deficit while 44 percent said it was more important to cut spending and trim the deficit.

Dawn Timmons, 39, a homemaker from Wallace, S.C., said she opposed Obama’s stimulus plan.

“We can’t afford to lose money, spending left and right,” she said, noting that she found Obama “a little cocky.”

She added, “We already got a lot of debt. The debt is just going to get worse if he just keeps spending money.”

The poll found 69 percent approve of the way Obama has handled his transition to the presidency. That’s down slightly from 73 percent last month, before Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on federal charges of trying to barter Obama’s open Senate seat for personal gain.

Still, the poll found approval of Obama’s transition remained strong and remarkably broad despite the Blagojevich controversy and other, smaller snags. Fully 85 percent of Democrats approve of the transition, along with 63 percent of independents and 48 percent of Republicans.

Darlene Clark, a 51-year old homemaker from Farmington, Mich., voted for Republican John McCain in November but has little but praise for Obama now.

“He’s very charismatic, got good leadership qualities,” Clark said. “Obviously, he’s a really smart person and I think he will try his best to do what he thinks is best for the country.”

The AP-GfK poll was conducted Jan. 9-14 and involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,001 randomly chosen adults. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The Quinnipiac University Poll found that 52 percent of voters believe the court made the right ruling. Thirty-nine percent disagreed with the court and nine percent were undecided.

The poll of 1,445 registered voters was taken between Dec. 11-15 and has a margin 2.6 percentage point margin of error.

The survey also found that 61 percent of voters oppose any effort to amend the Connecticut constitution to ban same-sex marriage.  Thirty-three percent said they would support an amendment.

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled on Oct. 10 that same-sex couples have the right to marry. The state previously had allowed civil unions, but the court found that separate but equal was unconstitutional.

“Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice,” Justice Richard N. Palmer wrote in the ruling.

The ruling went into effect on Nov. 12.

Massachusetts is the only other state where same-sex marriage currently is legal.  

Voters in California overturned a Supreme Court ruling in that state that struck down the ban on gay marriage.  The voter initiative is currently being challenged in court on constitutional grounds.

A ruling on a similar case in Maryland could come at any time.  Bills that would allow same-sex marriage are expected to be filed next year in about a half-dozen states.

The ban drew its strongest support from both evangelical Christians and voters who didn’t attend college, according to results released by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Age and race, meanwhile, were not as strong factors as assumed. According to the poll, 56 percent of voters over age 55 and 57 percent of nonwhite voters cast a yes ballot for the gay marriage ban.

People who identified themselves as practicing Christians were highly likely to support the constitutional amendment, with 85 percent of evangelical Christians, 66 percent of Protestants and 60 percent of Roman Catholics favoring it.

The poll also showed that the measure got strong backing from voters who did not attend college (69 percent), voters who earned less than $40,000 a year (63 percent) and Latinos (61 percent).

The proposition, which passed with 52 percent of the vote, overturned the state Supreme Court’s May decision legalizing gay marriage in California. The measure inserts language into the constitution limiting marriage to one man and one woman.

The poll found that, overall, 48 percent of voters oppose the idea of making gay marriage legal. Forty-seven percent support it, while 5 percent are undecided.

The results mirror previous PPIC polls from the last three years, suggesting that the $73 million spent for and against the measure did not do much to change public attitudes on allowing gay couples to wed, said survey director Mark Baldassare.

“At no point in time, before or after the election, did we have a majority of Californians saying they supported gay marriage,” Baldassare said. “My takeaway from this is that until there is a major shift in public opinion one way or another, it’s going to be another issue where voters are deeply divided.”

Geoffrey Kors, executive director of the gay rights group Equality California, said the PPIC poll demonstrates that same-sex marriage advocates “need to make inroads in every category. If 2 percent of voters had voted differently, we would have had a different result,” he said.

The poll was based on a phone survey of 2,003 California voters in the Nov. 4 election who were interviewed from Nov. 5-6. The sampling error was plus or minus 2 percentage points.

A separate poll by Harris Interactive for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation released on Wednesday found nationally three-quarters of Americans favor either marriage or domestic partnerships/civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. 

The University of Iowa poll found that 28.1 percent of those surveyed support same-sex marriage, while another 30.2 percent support civil unions, but not marriage. A third of those questioned oppose any recognition of same-sex couples, with about 10 percent having no opinion or refusing to answer.

The poll of 586 residents across the state was taken just prior to this month’s general election.

The Iowa Supreme Court will hear arguments Dec. 9 in a case involving six same-sex couples fighting for the right to marry. The lawsuit says state law limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples violates gay people’s rights to due process and equal protection established in the Iowa Constitution.

The court said that both sides will be given 30 minutes to make their arguments.

Last year, Polk County Judge Robert Hanson struck down the state’s Defense of Marriage law, declaring it to be unconstitutional.

Less than two hours after the the ruling, two Des Moines men applied for a marriage license, found a judge to waive the waiting period and were married.

Hanson then stayed his ruling until the state could appeal it to the Iowa Supreme Court. The marriage of Sean Fritz and Tim McQuillan remains the only legal same-sex marriage in Iowa.

In a separate case, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in January that co-adoptions by same-sex parents were legal.

The case involved a lesbian couple who had split up. While they were together, one partner had adopted the children of her partner. When the relationship ended, the birth mother asked a court if the other woman had visitation rights and could be compelled to pay child support.

A lower court ruled that co-adoptions by same-sex couples were illegal and threw out the case. The Supreme Court disagreed and ordered the lower court to revisit the case.

The issue of gay marriage has prompted Republicans and socially conservative groups to press for an amendment to the state constitution to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples.

Democrats who control the legislature have thwarted GOP demands they take up the proposed amendment.

To amend the Iowa Constitution, simple majorities are needed in both the House and Senate in two consecutive general assemblies and then it must be approved by a simple majority of voters in the following general election.

The UI poll released Wednesday found that if the Supreme Court rules in favor of gay marriage 35.4 percent of Iowans would accept the decision.

But another 27 percent said that if the court allows same-sex marriage, the legislature should move forward with a ban on gay marriage, but allow civil unions. Nearly 29 percent said they would support an amendment banning both gay marriage and civil unions and nearly 10 percent had no opinion or refused to answer.

The new Public Policy Institute of California survey finds that the ban, known as Proposition 8, is losing among likely voters, 52 percent to 44 percent. But when the margin of error is factored in, it is almost a dead heat.

The Public Policy Institute is the only survey in California that tracks voters on a monthly basis.

The October poll shows the gap between the two sides has narrowed since September, when 41 percent favored the proposition while 55 opposed it; and August, when the spread was 40 percent who said they would vote for the ban as opposed to 54 who would reject it.

On the more general question of how they feel about allowing gay and lesbian couples to legally marry in California, likely voters are divided, 47 percent in favor and 49 percent opposed. These attitudes are largely unchanged since 2005.

The survey also is at odds with other recent polls.

Earlier this week a poll conducted by Marist College Institute of Public Opinion for the Knights of Columbus found 52 percent of likely voters would support the amendment while 43 percent would reject it.

The Roman Catholic group has helped raise millions of dollars for the campaign in favor of the proposed amendment.

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.

Political analysts suggest the differences in the three polls is the result of the specific questions put to voters, the selection of the samples and the number of people sampled.

In 2004, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom began allowing marriage licenses to be issued to same-sex couples. 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