FiveThirtyEight.com have been crunching the CA Prop-8 numbers and report that blaming Obama supporters for the passage of Prop-8, the Anti Gay Marriage Initiative, is not supported by the polling.
New voters brought in by Obama voted convincingly against Prop-8.
Older Voters turned out to be the key demographic:
At the end of the day, Prop 8's passage was more a generational matter than a racial one. If nobody over the age of 65 had voted, Prop 8 would have failed by a point or two. It appears that the generational splits may be larger within minority communities than among whites, although the data on this is sketchy.
The good news for supporters of marriage equity is that -- and there's no polite way to put this -- the older voters aren't going to be around for all that much longer, and they'll gradually be cycled out and replaced by younger voters who grew up in a more tolerant era.
Trends over the years are still moving towards greater acceptance of equal rights for all, but we are obviously not there yet. Personal experience seems to indicate that the biggest impacts are made by individuals talking frankly to their friends and family. Demonstrations are good for the moral of those already convinced, but social change happens one person at a time. Take the oportunity to talk with the people you know already.
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