Poll says: California voters dislike idea of battling over gay marriage again in 2010
”Overall, 51% of California voters favored marriage rights for same-sex couples and 43% were opposed. Strikingly, however, almost 60% of Californians did not want to revisit the issue in 2010, just one election cycle after it last hit the ballot.”
LA Times/USC poll that appears to indicate that California is likely not going to be kind to gay marriage again should it receive enough support to appear on the ballot next year. California overturned same-sex marriage rights in 2008 by a slim majority — 52-48%. This week, voters in Maine had a nearly identical result when they overturned gay marriage in that state, too — 53-47%. One frustrating aspect of comparing the two Democrat-leaning states is that the demographics are so completely different, yet they came to the same result. California’s huge voter base is much more diverse when compared to Maine’s tiny, more homogeneous racial and cultural make up. Religious and socially conservative groups coordinated their anti-gay efforts in both elections, using the worst types of child-endangering propaganda to squeeze through a loss for the gay community. Given enough time, it’s hoped that voters’ opinions will move toward less resistance. This is driven primarily through polling data that consistently shows younger voters strongly favor allowing gay marriage. In the case of this poll, 18-29 year-olds favor equality at 71%, whereas voters 65+ only favor same-sex marriage by 37%. (LA Times / USC poll)
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