NAT'L GAY AND LESBIAN TASK FORCE PRESS RELEASE

November 3, 2004 (11:00am)--New York City. Returns indicate state constitutional amendments seeking to ban same-sex marriage will pass in all eleven states where the question was on the ballot. (In eight of the 11 contests, the measures also seek to ban other, more limited forms of partner recognition, including civil unions and domestic partnerships.) The margins of defeat ranged from 86% to 14% in Mississippi to 57% to 43% in Oregon.

"The results underscore why we have a Bill of Rights--because it is always wrong to put basic rights up to a popular vote. In fact, even today, 213 years after the Bill of Rights was ratified, it is doubtful Americans could win our freedoms of speech, press and religion at the ballot box," said Matt Foreman, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (the "Task Force"). "In the end, we know the Bill of Rights will guarantee every American the freedom to marry. For now, we'll dig in and fight harder--we've been fighting the forces of intolerance for decades and have made enormous progress against enormous odds.

"Last night, marriage equality took a right hook to the chin and tens of thousands of families will be hurt, but it's certainly not a knockout--in fact, our community is emerging stronger than ever before in many states," Foreman continued. "This is only one round and when the fight is over, complete equality for gay people will be the only side left standing."

Oregon--the only state that had anything close to the amount of money needed to run a competitive race--came closest to defeating its amendment. When the Oregon campaign started, polls said the amendment would carry by 27 points, meaning that the effort to defeat the amendment moved the electorate by 17 points in less than three months. It was the only campaign to show a significant movement in the electorate during the course of the campaign.

The next closest contest was Michigan, where the amendment was adopted 59% to 41%. The Oregon amendment garnered only 41% of the vote in the Multnomah County, the state's most populous, but the results were not enough to offset pro-amendment margins in rural counties. In Oregon, the No on Amendment 36 campaign raised and spent $2.8 million, three times more than any other state. The Task Force contributed over $900,000 to the effort and was the campaign's largest donor. (A more detailed discussion of the Oregon campaign is below.)

"The Oregon results clearly show that we can move hearts and votes when we have the resources to reach voters and speak to them directly about marriage and why it matters to gay people," said Foreman.

"Even though amendments passed, our community is coming out stronger in many states--these campaigns educated millions of voters about the gay families, identified tens of thousands of pro-gay voters, brought in thousands of new donors, built unprecedented alliances with labor and faith communities, and energized hundreds and hundreds of new volunteers," said Foreman. "All of this is the long-term payoff because in the end, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide on marriage equality and it will base its decision on the U.S. Constitution, not anything in any of the state constitutions."

more

posted by Eve at 6:35 PM | link

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home