…and that while they also opposes gay marriage 53/39, the numbers are increasing after the dip from last year*; and, at any rate, the movement since 2006 seems to be mostly coming from Republicans. Full details here, and it’s ostensibly good news for same-sex marriage supporters (like Instapundit, GayPatriot and, well, myself). It’d be reasonable to expect that this administration might be trying to work on some sort of compromise, right?
Nope. Not any time soon. There’s going to be no significant movement on same-sex marriage on the federal level before at least 2013. You can forget about ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, too: it’s too tied to the same-sex marriage issue to be repealed.
Why?
African-Americans are 40/52 against civil unions.
That’s why.
Moe Lane
PS: Hey, it’s not my fault.
*I personally blame the fight against Proposition 8 for that.
Crossposted to RedState.
“African-Americans are 40/52 against civil unions.”
Which is why Obama will not favor gay marriage nor oppose the Defense of Marriage Act. It has the highest potential of splitting the black vote from the Democrats.
Blacks may oppose gay marriage, etc but they will still support Obama and the Dem’s by overwhelming margins no matter what the latter do regarding gay issues; these issues simply aren’t very salient for black voters. At most a strong gay rights program would cause some black politicians trouble in the primaries, it will not cause black voters to abandon Obama or the Dem’ Party for the GOP. Obama’s hesitancy on gay issues is probably driven by some combination of three factors: his own personal views, fear of how it will play among independents and conservative white Dem voters, and/or a fear of becoming bogged down in secondary social issues that would distract attention from his economic & health care agenda.
What this fight over gay marriage shows is that ANY government definition of marriage, including or excluding same-sex marriage, is in violation of the First Amendment (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”). The government should do nothing but civil unions. Marriage is, like prayer, a matter for churches and individual conscience.