Gays and democracy: follow-up
In response to my post on gays and democracy, Christopher at A Stitch in Haste comments here. I’ll have more to say later — maybe tomorrow — on his remarks, including his suggestion that the Ninth Amendment conveys a right to same-sex marriage. (By the way, Chris, I’m happy to give you the “free publicity;” you have a fine blog.)
But in the meantime, a new poll from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press provides further evidence that supporters of gay equality are actually the majority, not the minority:
Just over half of those polled, 53 percent, said they support civil unions for gay people, while 36 percent said they favor gay marriage — a slight increase on both issues from a year ago.
In other words, the majority is willing to grant gay marriage in everything but name. Now I know that the name is important to a lot of people. And for the gays and lesbians to whom it is important, the results of this poll might be disappointing. But given that the majority is willing to make historic changes in the law to give you almost everything you want, you can’t argue, at least not persuasively, that democracy is rigged against you.
Of course such polls are accurate. This is why that whenever the issue is put to a vote it is defeated overwhelmingly. Guess the voters must not be reading those polls. Stupid voters.