Well, if the much talked about mass exodus out of the state of Tennessee does happen, Arizona looks like a good place to consider.
It's encouraging to have one victory among so many depressing defeats. Arizona defeated the gay marriage ban, but seven states approved it. What is different about people in Arizona? Are they predominantly young?
Arizona became the first state in the nation to reject a same-sex ban on the ballot. Twenty-seven states have approved bans, including seven on Tuesday. With 98-percent of Arizona's precincts reporting, Proposition 107 was failing 51 percent to 49 percent.
As expected, the Hate Amendment -- designed to make same-sex marriage doubly illegal -- was overwhelmingly approved by voters in Tennessee.
Senator David Fowler, the state legislator who is wed to the Church, played a significant role in the passage of the Hate Amendment. As leader of the local Focus on the Family affiliate, Fowler was in charge of providing Churches with a slew of propaganda which included instructions for get-out-the-homophobic-vote sermons.
Similar amendments were ap proved Tuesday in Idaho, South Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin. Votes in Colorado, South Dakota and Arizona were too close to call.
Randy Tarkington, manager of the Tennessee "Vote No on 1" campaign, said that he knew there was little chance of beating the amendment at the ballot box but that opponents had already earned many victories. Chief among them: Much of the campaign played out on college campuses, and many 18- to 24-year-olds turned out for early voting. "This has been shown to be a generational issue, and we know now that our future looks very good," Tarkington said.
In other words, the bigots will eventually die off. We can't wait.
In Virginia, the anti gay marriage amendment passed by close to 60 percent.
In Wisconsin, "57.5 percent of voters favored the amendment banning state recognition of gay marriage and any type of civil union similar to marriage, according to unofficial returns." {With 50 percent of precincts reporting)
In Colorado, "With 61 percent of the projected vote counted, the gay marriage ban Amendment 43 had 57 percent support to 43 percent against it."
In Idaho, "Based on early returns that showed a wide margin of support, more than 70 percent of Idaho voters were in favor of the amendment, which not only bans gay marriage but also any domestic unions outside of traditional marriages."
In South Dakota, "With 96 percent of precincts reporting, 156,605 people, or 52 percent, voted for the amendment, while 144,855 people, or 48 percent, opposed it."
In Tennessee, "With 1,941 of 2,330 precincts reporting, the marriage amendment received 1,213,336 yes votes – 81 per cent - to just 282,941 votes against."
I think there's one more, but you get the idea. It appears that Tennessee is the most homophobic state of all the states with bans on the ballot in 2006. Or perhaps Tennessee just has the most homophobic leaders, that would include Governor Phil Bredesen (D). He really did not have to tell us that he was voting for it.
Gay David Fowler Gay Marriage Tennessee Politics Bush News Arizona Election 2006 Marriage Amendment
