The first comprehensive poll on Proposition 8 is out today, and it looks good for those of us who support marriage equality. In the Field Poll, 51% of Californians oppose amending the constitution to ban same-sex marriage, while 42% favor it. Too soon to pop champagne corks, but as long as Senator Obama can drive a good number of young folks to the polls, it looks like gay marriage is en route to its first ever victory at the ballot box.
I’ll believe that when I see it. One can’t be too pessimistic regarding politics, I always say.
Indeed. How often have progressives found a way to snatch defeat from near-certain victory? The tally of disappointments is great indeed.
Indeed!
it looks like gay marriage is en route to its first ever victory at the ballot box.
Not so fast there — we in Arizona defeated an anti-marriage ballot measure in 2006.
…we in Arizona defeated an anti-marriage ballot measure in 2006.
Arizona is a pretty standard red state. California, not so much.
Wait, by “anti-marriage,” did you mean “against gay marriage?” If so, ignore that last message; I’m too used to hearing this discussion through the “pro-family” dialect.
Stentor’s technically right. What will make November 2008 different (deo volente, baruch hashem, etc.) is that in a state where marriage is already a reality for same-sex couples, voters will be asked to either dissolve those marriages or embrace them. And if they embrace them, as I suspect they will (by a narrow margin, natch), the religious right will have lost their key argument that the voters of a state had never given straight (sorry) approval to gay marriages.