Comments on: Bipartisan Pollsters Find Rapid Increase In Support for Marriage Equality

By: T.J.

T.J. — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 18:22:56 +0000

I would be interested to see these poll questions expanded to questions about the perceived morality of gay relationships and gay marriage. The reason I state this is that I’ve done a lot of research in my masters and doctorate degrees in psychology that shows that though there is a shift in support for equal rights, there is not as great a shift in people’s personal beliefs about the morality of our life choices. While I think the American cultural belief in equality for all people is a large reason for the shift in public sentiment, I don’t think we can end our efforts at convincing the public that our relationships and love are MORAL and not just entitled to legal protection. This is necessary to reduce prejudice, discrimination, and violence against our community which will remain a serious problem if all we win is the legal and political debate. Hopefully, gay marriages will be public enough in the lives of ordinary Americans and more folks in our community will come out and demonstrate that we are good people who love each other, our families, and our nation. This will go a long way toward achieving this end.

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 20:32:10 +0000

This confirms something that we have been noticing for a while. In April 2009 we noted that the rate of change in support for marriage equality had taken a sharp uptick and began considering if a tipping point had been reached. By May of this year it appeared that this uptick was not an anomaly and I speculated on a cultural shift and what may have been its triggering event.

I think I know why. I don’t have evidence for this conjecture, and history may prove me wrong, but I believe that a single international moment occurred which changed the way in which marriage equality was viewed both within and without the gay community: Proposition 8. ... This was an unexpected response. Those who oppose marriage didn’t expect it, the voters didn’t expect it. And we didn’t expect it. But something about the moment of this vote and this time in this state caught our collective discontent and channeled it around a singular event. Losing proposition 8 changed us as a community, for the first time we truly began to believe – all of us, not just the activists but club kids and conservative couples and militant queers and feminist lesbians – that marriage was a right to which we are entitled and which is worth fighting for. And, just as importantly, it showed those around us that we truly care. It ceased being a matter over which we could politely disagree and became a position which defined friendship and family and faith. And as a consequence, those around us changed. Reluctant and hesitant and fearful people decided that if they had to choose between tradition and those they love (and, yes, now they have to choose), they would give up tradition.

By: Richard Rush

Richard Rush — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:10:51 +0000

Leave it to me to find a troubling aspect in these favorable polling results:

They seem to illustrate that, ultimately, the only way to end tyranny by the majority against an unpopular minority is for that unpopular minority to become popular.

And the US Constitution doesn’t really matter all that much. The Supreme Court has often shown they won’t decide in favor of expanding rights until a significant level of popularity, or at least public acceptance, has been achieved.