[Ninja Duck]

Gay marriage issue fails to excite voters
Wed 14 July, 2004 20:16
By Alan Elsner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Evangelical Christian supporters of President George W. Bush hoped their drive to ban same sex marriages would become a defining issue in this year's presidential campaign but so far this has not happened.

Political analysts and advocates on either side of the issue, interviewed as the Senate rejected a White House-backed bid to amend the U.S. Constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage, agreed that so far the issue had failed to catch fire in the country at large. The Senate vote on Wednesday likely killed the proposal for this election year.

"It has not caught on. By forcing the Senate vote, supporters of the gay marriage ban may hope to generate enough publicity to make it more of a galvanising issue," said John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron who studies the evangelical Christian community.


Pollster Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Centre said same sex marriage was not and would not become a top issue in the presidential battle. In one survey he conducted earlier this year, voters ranked it as 24th most important of 25 issues, ahead only of sending a space ship to explore Mars.

"That doesn't mean people don't think it's important but it doesn't have the salience and resonance of the big issues like the economy, Iraq and terrorism," he said.

In one CBS poll in May, only 29 percent said the issue should play a part in the presidential election while 70 percent were opposed.

That kind of data gives Democrats an opening to argue that the Senate should not be spending three days on this issue when so many other pressing matters remain on the agenda.

"This is a waste of time," said California Senator Dianne Feinstein, the first Democratic opponent to speak in Senate debate on the issue on Monday.

'Bout time someone holding a public office noticed that...

[Chyld]

For god's sake, leave the gay people alone! Marry anyone you want, as long as they're human! We are all human, I take it?

[J m HofMarN]

Well I never thought I'd say it but I gotta give props to the American voter here. See me, I thought that the average guy would be too busy yelling "Hey Marta, we gotta vote fer Dubya cuz he's the onlyest candadate gunna keep gay people from havin sex with their sisters and farm aminals!" But instead they seem to have managed to keep the focus on things that are actual real issues and not just bigotry. Bravo, bravo.

[Mist]

a political scientist ... who studies the evangelical Christian community.

That job description amuses me. It conjures up the image of little evangelical christians running around in a petri dish.

This post has been edited by Mist: 15 July 2004 - 03:18 AM

[Jordan]

Good, then it's all going to plan.

[Private Zod]

It amazed me that Bush wanted to have on his record the distinction of being the first president to have passed an amendment to the constitution that restricts the rights of a particular group. "Freedom of press, abolition of slavery, life liberty and pursuit of happiness...and NO GAY MARRIAGE!" Sure it fits right in with the others.

Some of these politicians are a living mockery of the marriage institution with multiple divorces, public affairs, etc...yet they feel they are morally superior enough in their love life to decide to consenting adults of the same sex who have been togther in a healthy relationship for years and wnat o hav ethe right to make their union "official" are wrong.

[J m HofMarN]

There was the silly prohibition ammendment but they gave up on that when people stopped giving a shit. I think the same thing will happen and it'll just be incredibly funny. States are going to increasingly recognize gay marriage because they're run by sane human beings. Bush will yell a t them and the people who got married can just laugh and say "What are you going to do, un-marry us or something?" Then eventually down the road the idiots who supported it will just die and that'll be the end of it.

[Jordan]

Then eventually down the road the idiots who supported it will just die and that'll be the end of it. 

Thats true. It's becoming more and more accepted (almost every one in the forum does) In time when the anti same sex generation passes on, that will be it. There will be no difference between gay and straight.

This post has been edited by Jordan: 27 July 2004 - 01:53 AM

[civilian_number_two]

Well, there will be some key differences, and lots of people will still hate gay people, the way lots of people still hate Blacks and Natives and Jews.

I for one will prefer the slightly hypocritical furture of public aceptance and secret loating to our current climate of pretended public acceptance and legal loathing.