Gay Marriage won big last night in Massachusetts

[shawmut]

What a difference a state makes.




Here is an email I got today from Mass Equality:






Wow! We won big last night in Massachusetts.

Thanks to your support, every pro-equality legislator won reelection (and more often than not, by very large margins).

In addition, pro-equality candidates won six of eight open seats where the opponent was in favor of the constitutional amendment that would bar marriage equality for same-sex couples. Senators-elect Ed Augustus (2nd Worcester) and Karen Spilka (2nd Middlesex and Norfolk) both won tough races against well-funded opponents. Representatives-elect Denis Guyer (2nd Berkshire), John Keenan (7th Essex), Tom Sannicandro (7th Middlesex), and Cleon Turner (1st Barnstable) also won. These victories were achieved, in no small part, with your volunteer and financial support.

In one of the few races where equal marriage rights became a significant issue, openly gay Carl Sciortino beat by a two-to-one margin Representative Vinny Ciampa, who waged a homophobic write-in campaign after losing the primary.

We unleashed an unprecedented effort statewide to re-elect our allies and defeat our opponents. Along with our coalition partners, MassEquality worked strategically in both the primary and general elections. We told incumbents we’d stick with them and we did, from door-knocking, to phone banking, to fund raising. You were critical to this success.

Yesterday's victories position us extremely well for next year's constitutional convention. We deserve to celebrate. Very soon, however, we will let you know about the next steps in our campaign to preserve equal marriage rights in Massachusetts.

Finally, it bears repeating -- last night's victories in Massachusetts were truly historic and have national implications. What we have done together these past few months is incredible. I can't express the deep admiration I have for all of you who have made this possible.

Sincerely,

Marty Rouse
Campaign Director

P.S. As I write this message, we have lost ten of the eleven statewide ballot initiatives related to marriage with Oregon's fate still uncertain. Massachusetts is the one shining light of hope for supporters of equality in our country.

[PittLib]

1. Every bit helps ...

I just hope that you don't plan to move.

[David__77]

2. This is good news! On a related matter...

…gay marriage as an issue is what cost Kerry a win in Ohio.

This issue has always led to the fundamentalists and apolitical anti-gay types to come to the polls, when they otherwise would not. To clarify, Ohio, along with several other states yesterday, had an anti-same sex marriage amendment on its ballot. The churches were mobilizing bigtime to get their members to vote for this measure (yes, they can do that).

Now, I note that pre-election polls of gay marriage ballot measures universally are more favorable to the gay rights side than the results are on election day. This means that 1) People are lying out of embarrassment in opinion polls and/or 2) The polls fail to incorporate the way that such a measure on the ballot affects turnout, skewing the results of the polls.

I tend to think the latter of these is the operable case. We were simply out-mobilized. I think it would be interesting to take the “skew” of the final polls and compare it with if the states had such a measure on the ballot. I suspect that in these 11 states, Kerry did worse and Bush better than pre-election polls suggested.

In short, the marriage issue cost Kerry. But this is nothing new. Desegregation cost Humphrey in 1968, for instance.

[Rockholm]

4. Well, Kerry lost a bunch of other states without it!

I don't believe that it was a major issue, however, it could have been one of many contributing factors.

[TaleWgnDg]

5. As a stanch individual rights advocate and one who has fought

for such in our courts across Massachusetts and other states, I find, too, that the so-called "gay marriage" issue cost John Forbes Kerry the presidential election. Why?

It went under the wire so to speak, undetected to those in mainstream America -- this sad mixture of God, politics and law. Who of us knew that the so-called "Christian" rightwing would cohesively and successfully go church to church, meeting to meeting, mailings to mailings gathering a rising "moralistic" storm against the individual rights of same sex marriage? Thus, against Kerry? And turn the tide?!

This issue, David_77 indicates, brought out the "Christian" "moral values" vote across Ohio and in other states where anti-gay measures appeared on the ballots. Without this well organized grassroots turn-out, there would be a President Kerry today.

With this in mind, I dread George Walker Bush's reward to this constituency - the religion-into-law-people. After all, GWBush is a "lame duck" president, correct? Who does he need answer to? GWBush takes this stuff personally, too, because this is his God (or how GWBush perceives his God). The impact for America may run deep. Particularly where the Senate has gained a few more Republican seats which may be the turning point of cloture and the ability to successfully block federal judicial appointments with filibusters by the Dems.


=============================================
WHO WOULD JESUS ELECT?
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2658470

The Bush-Cheney campaign continued its church-based
outreach by giving religious volunteers 22 timelined tasks.
By July 31, 2004 volunteers are to "send your church directory
to your state Bush-Cheney '04 headquarters or give to a
BC04 field rep." By August 15, "talk to your church's seniors
or 20-30 something group about Bush-Cheney '04." In October,
"finish distributing voter guides in your church" and post notices
"about all Christian citizens needing to vote." An IRS letter to
the Bush and Kerry campaigns noted, "religious organizations are
allowed to sponsor debates, distribute voter guides and conduct
voter registration guides" unless they show "a preference for or
against a certain candidate or party."

SOURCE: Houston Chronicle, July 2, 2004

More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2004.html#1088740800
=============================================

[skippysmom]

3. Gay marriage will remain legal in Mass

Romney's smackdown plus Finneran's resignation make it much more likely.

[masshole1979]

6. Anyone else think many in mass support gay marriage b/c texas et al don't?

I know a couple people who were never really in favor of gay marriage till they found out the creationist crowd were foaming at the mouth over it.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

7. No, I think most Massholes believe in MYOB

mind your own business. Not caring who marries who is an extension of the Yankee attitude up here. New Englanders don't like being told what to do, and are more independent thinkers in general.

[TayTay]

8. I think MA is ahead of the curve on this

Polls show younger voters favor gay marraige rights. (I don't have the stats in front of me, but I thought it was something like 55-45 or higher.)

My Repug brother (who lives in NH) doesn't consider this an issue. He feels that it's a matter of personal freedom. This is a libertarian position that favors people determining their own future rather than having the state lay down restrictions. He still voted for Bush, sigh.

I don't think there is going to be a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2006. That's because I think public opinion has turned in the Bay State and I don't think it would pass.

[rox63]

9. I agree

Even some people who originally opposed same-sex marriage must have noticed that the sky hasn't fallen in MA, despite thousands of gay couples getting hitched.