[lbo-talk] race and gay marriage

[Doug Henwood]

The Gay Marriage Vote
When Californians voted by 52-48 percent for a gay marriage ban Nov.  
4, it wasn’t the first time: A similar measure passed by 61-39 percent  
in 2000, then was rejected by the state’s courts. The new version  
bypassed the courts by amending the state’s Constitution.

What changed in the two votes? Support for banning gay marriage  
dropped among most groups, producing the narrower margin. But it  
increased in one, African-Americans, and that contributed greatly to  
the measure’s success: Non-blacks voted 50-50 on the measure this  
year, while blacks backed it by a 40-point margin.

In the item below, Nik Bonovich, an election polling analyst here at  
the ABC News Polling Unit, dissects some of the changes in  
California’s vote on gay marriage from 2000 to 2008.

See the latest ABC News Blog at: http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenumbers/2008/11/the-gay-marriag.html