The Political Whore

A small but vocal group of protestors, both gay and straight, stood at the busy corner of 66th St. and 49th Ave. N. in Pinellas Tuesday night, armed with handmade signs and the passionate conviction that the California Supreme Court decision upholding the Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage was a slap in the face to gays and lesbians everywhere. With storm clouds gathering above, they stood their ground and talked to CL.

Beth Fountain, a writer and former lawyer, questioned the dense language of the decision, in which the court essentially contradicted its position from a year before.

Like Fountain, musician Lisa Noe of the band Karmic Tattoo wondered why gay marriage could be “OK one minute, then it’s not OK the next.” And Rick Boylan, president of the Pinellas chapter of Stonewall Democrats and the secretary of the state Democratic party, pointed out that, even with the setback in California, the state is still years ahead of Florida in its recognition of gay rights: “We’re still dealing with issues that are left over from Anita Bryant days.”

More interviews after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

Ellen and Portia can stay married, says the court. The rest of you gays? Maybe not.

Today’s decision by the California Supreme Court upholds Proposition 8, the ballot measure that amended the state constitution to limit marriage to heterosexual couples. But the court let stand the marriages that took place between May 4, 2008, when the same judicial body said it could see no constitutional excuse for banning gay marriage, and Nov. 4, 2008, when 52 percent of voters replied, “OK, we’ll give you a constitutional reason, you activist judges you!”

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A study released today (.pdf here) finds that while African American voters in California did support the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 in higher percentages than other ethnic groups, they did not do so in “overwhelming numbers.”

The study by two professors found:

That after taking into account the effect of religious service attendance, support for Proposition 8 among African Americans and Latinos was not significantly different than other groups. Through a precinct-by-precinct analysis and review of multiple other sources of data, the study also puts African-American support for Proposition 8 at no more than 59 percent, nowhere close to the 70 percent reported the night of the election. Finally, the study shows how support for marriage equality has grown substantially across almost all California demographic groups — except Republicans.

What drove the vote? Party ID, religious attendance rates and ideology, not race or ethnicity:

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