Gay-Marriage Bid Is Delayed
Related News
- 01/06/10 — Battle Over Marriage Equality in DC Moves to Court
- 12/03/09 — 2010 gay marriage vote unlikely in California
- 12/01/09 — One question divides same-sex marriage proponents: When?
- 11/10/09 — Rep. Yates proposes overturning Ohio’s same-sex marriage ban
- 11/03/09 — State’s voters opt for pragmatism
- More LGBT Equality news
Wall Street Journal: California's leading gay-rights group said Wednesday it would wait until 2012 to put a measure on the state ballot to legalize same-sex marriage -- much later than many advocates expected and a sign the national push for gay marriage could stretch for years despite recent victories in some states. Equality California, the group that organized an unsuccessful effort to block California's Proposition 8 last year banning gay marriage in the state, said it planned to wait three years because it would take that long to change enough minds to win at the polls. Polls show few voters have shifted their position since November, when 52% backed Prop 8, said Marc Solomon, Equality California's marriage director. The state Supreme Court in May rejected a constitutional challenge to Prop 8, which defined marriage as only between a man and a woman. Mr. Solomon said some 60% of California voters under the age of 30 strongly supported gay marriage. The change in voter rolls by 2012 and the younger turnout likely in a presidential election would give proponents a 4% lift over 2010, Mr. Solomon said. Ron Prentice, the chairman of ProtectMarriage.com, a group that led the campaign for Prop 8, said he wasn't surprised by Equality California's announcement. "The polling on gay marriage will continue to show that more and more people in California oppose granting marriage to same-sex couples," he said. His organization, he said, was continuing to build its ranks and raise funds for future battles.
Other major gay organizations said they would push ahead with a marriage referendum on California's ballot in November 2010. The divergent timelines underscore a rift in California's gay-rights movement, which has suffered several setbacks in its efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in the state, even as other states, including Vermont, Connecticut and Iowa, have begun allowing it. The other gay-rights groups said waiting until the 2012 election would cause their supporters to lose momentum. "I don't know why we would say no to the movement we've got now," said Rick Jacobs, the founder of the Courage Campaign, an online organizing network for progressive causes whose 700,000 members voted in May to support a 2010 ballot initiative. The Courage Campaign, which is developing the language to use in a 2010 initiative, is being advised by Steve Hildebrand, the former deputy campaign manager for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
To read more, click here.
Comments
Awesome write-up. The graphic content presented right here is definitely of quite high quality. I most certainly will utilize this site more often for ip address
