Search This Blog

Monday, June 27, 2011

Marriage Equality And Elections

I believe that New York's passing marriage equality legislation last Friday was a landmark decision. This is quite huge.

This is a progressive issue and it is being spearheaded by the third most populous state. I think the implications go much further. When we talk about a landslide, we are talking about something that sweeps away all kinds of matter in its path. This is such legislation as it will embolden more progressive issues. People are charged.

Young people are far more open to gay marriage then older people. In time this is a change that will clearly occurs regardless as the new guard replaces the old. The patriarchs of the various churches in opposition and the politicians like Bachmann and Christie are attempting to hold back a body of water where the dam has already burst.

I think the implications are strong not just for marriage equality but for other issues as well. Seeing people fight for their rights makes other people want the same for themselves on a host of issues. 2011 is shaping up to be a year of human rights gains worldwide. There is a lot of kickback and resentment of the changes, that is the way humans change. Some go kicking and screaming and others just enjoy the ride.

CS Monitor: How will New York's gay marriage law affect the 2012 election and beyond?
...Republican leaders in New Hampshire hope to repeal the state law allowing same-sex marriage – right around the time of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary election.


Elected judges in Iowa who upheld that state’s law have been defeated at the polls. Voters in Maine repealed a law allowing same-sex marriage. And in California, the legal fight over the Prop. 8 ballot measure banning same-sex marriage continues – most recently involving questions over whether a gay judge can fairly hear the case.


...(On gay marriage) Gallup...pushed through the majority mark to 53 percent this year.


Could an exodus of gay people from the rest of the US to the Empire State sap the will (and pocketbooks) of campaigns to legalize marriage in, say, Missouri or Minnesota or Kansas?”

No comments: