[lbo-talk] race and gay marriage

[John Thornton]

Doug Henwood wrote:
> 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

Do education attainment and income changes among Blacks from 2000 to 
today explain part of this?

John Thornton