Not a good election for gays
While President-elect Obama may be a vindication of Martin Luther King's vision, another group with a long history of oppression did very badly out of the US elections.
Connecticut voters rejected calling a Constitutional Convention to overturn same-sex marriage (59% to 41%) and the Democrats getting control of the New York State Senate for the first time in decades is hopeful for same-sex marriage in that State.
Apart from that, it was generally a very bad election for gay rights. Arkansas voted to ban unmarried couples from being foster parents (57% to 43%). Florida voted to ban same-sex marriage (62% to 38%), as did Arizona (56% to 44%), the only State where such a ban (clearly cast too widely, since the failed version banned legal recognition of all non-married couples) had previously failed at the polls. Most disappointingly, so did California (52% to 48%).
The voter turnout drive among African-American voters probably pushed the California ban over the top: that's the irony of Obama's victory: Had black turnout matched levels of previous elections, the vote on the gay-marriage ban-which trailed in the polls for much of the summer-would have been much closer. It might even have failed. Looking more closely at the exit polls, in California, African-American voters were the demographic group most opposed to same-sex marriage.
Exit polls suggest Obama received less GBLT support than Kerry in 2004, while McCain received more than any Republican nominee since pollsters started asking the question. The defeat of various moderate Republicans also lessens the pro-gay voices in the Republican caucus.
Yes, gays got a mention in Obama's victory speech. But Sen. Obama (now President-elect) already said he will go slowly on "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and opposes same-sex marriage on religious grounds. Obama was also the best-funded candidate in US political history: mainstream gay rights organisations raising money for his campaign when civic equality for gays was up against the best-funded issues campaign ever was a monstrous misapplication of scarce time and effort.
The Democratic political establishment has delivered some benefits to gays, but has conspicuously failed to deliver big ones. Instead, supporting the Defense of Marriage Act and coming up with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". The mainstream gay lobbyists may have jobs and access from that political establishment, but actual benefits for the people they are supposed to be speaking for are pretty thin.
And not pushing civic equality for gays is an easy way to show how "mainstream" one is. If the Defense of Marriage Act is still law come November 2010, there will be one group for whom the promise of change you can believe in will ring very hollow.
Connecticut voters rejected calling a Constitutional Convention to overturn same-sex marriage (59% to 41%) and the Democrats getting control of the New York State Senate for the first time in decades is hopeful for same-sex marriage in that State.
Apart from that, it was generally a very bad election for gay rights. Arkansas voted to ban unmarried couples from being foster parents (57% to 43%). Florida voted to ban same-sex marriage (62% to 38%), as did Arizona (56% to 44%), the only State where such a ban (clearly cast too widely, since the failed version banned legal recognition of all non-married couples) had previously failed at the polls. Most disappointingly, so did California (52% to 48%).
The voter turnout drive among African-American voters probably pushed the California ban over the top: that's the irony of Obama's victory: Had black turnout matched levels of previous elections, the vote on the gay-marriage ban-which trailed in the polls for much of the summer-would have been much closer. It might even have failed. Looking more closely at the exit polls, in California, African-American voters were the demographic group most opposed to same-sex marriage.
Exit polls suggest Obama received less GBLT support than Kerry in 2004, while McCain received more than any Republican nominee since pollsters started asking the question. The defeat of various moderate Republicans also lessens the pro-gay voices in the Republican caucus.
Yes, gays got a mention in Obama's victory speech. But Sen. Obama (now President-elect) already said he will go slowly on "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and opposes same-sex marriage on religious grounds. Obama was also the best-funded candidate in US political history: mainstream gay rights organisations raising money for his campaign when civic equality for gays was up against the best-funded issues campaign ever was a monstrous misapplication of scarce time and effort.
The Democratic political establishment has delivered some benefits to gays, but has conspicuously failed to deliver big ones. Instead, supporting the Defense of Marriage Act and coming up with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". The mainstream gay lobbyists may have jobs and access from that political establishment, but actual benefits for the people they are supposed to be speaking for are pretty thin.
And not pushing civic equality for gays is an easy way to show how "mainstream" one is. If the Defense of Marriage Act is still law come November 2010, there will be one group for whom the promise of change you can believe in will ring very hollow.