Poll: 8% of Prop 8 Supporters Would Change Their Votes

Jon Ponder

Buyers’ Remorse: Prop 8 won by 4 percent and change — 52 percent to 48 percent. In a new poll from SurveyUSA, 8 percent of people who voted for Prop 8, a more than sufficient number to tip the vote the other way, said they had changed their minds:

Of the adults who tell SurveyUSA they voted FOR Prop 8, 90 percent of them told us recent rallies held by “No on Prop 8″ Protesters have not changed their minds about the issue. 8 percent say protesters have changed their minds.

On the status of California’s 20,000 or so gay married couples, 59 percent said their marriages should remain legal. Thirty-four percent said the marriages should be annulled immediately. This is interesting because 34 percent is also roughly the percentage both of California voters who are Republicans and who approve of the job performance of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Oh, and bias alert. The SurveyUSA article on the poll was titled, “No on Prop 8 Protesters Have Not Changed Many Minds in California.” Not “many,” certainly, but “enough” — and that is what counts.

By Voiding Equal Protection, Prop 8 Could Threaten Rights of Minorities Nationwide

Jon Ponder

In their outreach to blacks, Latino, Asians and other minority voters, the conservative operatives behind Proposition 8 neglected to mention a key aspect of the initiative that could contribute to rolling back minority rights for years to come.
Prop 8 stripped gays of the right to marry with 52 percent support — less than is required to approve bond measures.
Prop 8 not only rendered quaint the California Constitution’s equal protection clause — a foundational precept that instructs the state to protect the rights of all citizens equally — it also rescinded the right to marry for California gays. This sets it apart from other states’ anti-gay marriage amendments because it establishes a precedent for conservative efforts to curb minority rights using ballot initiatives and by other means:

California’s gay marriage ban could open the door to legal discrimination against unpopular groups if the state Supreme Court allows the voter-approved measure to stand, blacks, Latinos, Asians and other minorities said…

Legal scholars say the measure, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, breaks new ground by limiting the courts’ ability to protect minorities.

“They could take away any right from any group,” said University of Southern California Law Professor David Cruz, who filed a brief in favor of gay marriage in an earlier case.

The ban … amended the constitution with 52 percent support — less than is required to approve some state bond measures.

“The entire purpose behind the constitutional principle of equal protection would be subverted if the constitutional protection of unpopular minorities were subject to simple majority rule,” read a brief by black, Asian and Hispanic groups challenging the ban. “This case is not simply about gay and lesbian equality.”

Despite the peril it presents to American social justice, legal experts say that the California Supreme Court is unlikely to overturn the amendment because it was passed within the parameters of existing law.

Richardson Must Do One Thing to Get Our Nod

Trish
Bill and his little friend

We like New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson alright. We do remember him padding his resume with that baseball pitcher draft story. And we know he’s not what you’d call really comfortable around gay people. And his record of respect toward women is…not stellar.

But we’d forgive all that, and get behind Obama’s likely selection of Richardson for Secretary of Commerce if he’d do one thing: shave that beard!

Seriously Bill, what is up with that stuff? Is it a goatee? A Balbo? A Van Dyke? An anchor? A Zappa? Which? How’s about you go back to the original baby-face vibe and ditch that slightly satanic thing you’re sporting now?

Weasel McConnell Knifes Bush in the Back

Trish

Did the Senate Minority Leader just say he’ll be happy to see Bush go?

A top Republican said on Friday that Democratic U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is “off to a good start” and indicated he was pleased to see President George W. Bush get ready to leave.

“Our members, in one way, are kind of relieved by the departure of an administration that became unpopular and made it very difficult for us to compete,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Capitol Hill.

McConnell won 52.9 percent of the votes over Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford in a surprisingly (to McConnell) competitive re-election campaign. Had he lost, it sounds like McConnell would have blamed it all on Bush, the man who employs McConnell’s wife, U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. McConnell has also been at Bush’s side on Iraq, cheering on the alleged progress that showed victory was just around the corner every year since he backed Bush’s ill-fated plan to invade.

Candace Gringrich to Newt: Quit Living in the Past on Gay Rights

Trish
Candace Gringrich

Only someone who really knows you can totally nail why you’re wrong, wrong, wrong. Newt Gingrich’s half-sister Candace does just that as she lets her big (and we mean big) half-brother know why his position on gay rights sucks.

Dear Newt,

I recently had the displeasure of watching you bash the protestors of the Prop 8 marriage ban to Bill O’Reilly on FOX News. I must say, after years of watching you build your career by stirring up the fears and prejudices of the far right, I feel compelled to use the words of your idol, Ronald Reagan, “There you go, again.”

However, I realize that you may have been a little preoccupied lately with planning your resurrection as the savior of your party, so I thought I would fill you in on a few important developments you might have overlooked.

“You give a pass to a religious group when they use their money and membership roles to roll back the rights of others, and then you label us ‘fascists’ when we fight back”

The truth is that you’re living in a world that no longer exists. I, along with millions of Americans, clearly see the world the way it as — and we embrace what it can be. You, on the other hand, seem incapable of looking for new ideas or moving beyond what worked in the past.

Welcome to the 21st century, big bro. I can understand why you’re so afraid of the energy that has been unleashed after gay and lesbian couples had their rights stripped away from them by a hateful campaign. I can see why you’re sounding the alarm against the activists who use all the latest tech tools to build these rallies from the ground up in cities across the country.

This unstoppable progress has at its core a group we at HRC call Generation Equality. They are the most supportive of full LGBT equality than any American generation ever — and when it comes to the politics of division, well, they don’t roll that way. 18-24 year olds voted overwhelmingly against Prop 8 and overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. And the numbers of young progressive voters will only continue to grow. According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning, about 23 million 18-29 year olds voted on Nov. 4, 2008 — the most young voters ever to cast a ballot in a presidential election. That’s an increase of 3 million more voters compared to 2004.

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