{"id":1110,"date":"2009-11-10T19:00:33","date_gmt":"2009-11-11T02:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sexuality\/?p=1110"},"modified":"2009-11-11T15:45:25","modified_gmt":"2009-11-11T22:45:25","slug":"interpreting-gay-marriage-results-maine-vs-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sexuality\/2009\/11\/10\/interpreting-gay-marriage-results-maine-vs-washington\/","title":{"rendered":"Interpreting “Gay Marriage” results: Maine vs. Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year’s November elections in the United States included two high profile “gay marriage” cases, one in Maine, one in Washington State. Both states typically vote Democratic, are predominately White, and are on the Northernmost borders of the US, brushing up against Canada (where gay marriage has been legal since 2005)<\/a>. Accurate data on religiousity is hard to come by, but Maine and Washington are both considered to be far more secular than their counterparts in the South and Southeast. Now a week after the elections with most of the votes counted, activists and analysts are attempting to understand what happened: Why did Maine vote against gay marriage, and Washington vote for civil unions (AKA “everything but marriage”?)<\/p>\n

In Maine, <\/strong>gay marriage was voted down by voters at 53% to 47%. (But just two weeks before the vote, polls indicated a dead heat at 48% to 48%, with 5 percent undecided<\/a>).\"maine_map\"<\/p>\n

\"Washington_map\"In Washington<\/strong>, civil unions (AKA “everything but marriage”)\u00a0between same sex partners and opposite sex partners older than 62 was approved by almost the same percentage as disproved in Maine: Approximately 53% to 47%.<\/p>\n

The Huffington Post (via AP newswire) reports<\/a> that Maine is just the latest in failures for gay marriage to pass by popular vote:<\/p>\n

Gay marriage has now lost in every single state — 31 in all — in which it has been put to a popular vote. Gay-rights activists had hoped to buck that trend in Maine — known for its moderate, independent-minded electorate — and mounted an energetic, well-financed campaign.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yesterday’s issue of The National Review Online, a conservative online publication, featured a triumphant story on the Maine defeat:<\/p>\n

Robert P. George, a professor of politics at Princeton and founder of the <\/span>American Principles Project<\/span><\/a>, observes: \u201c<\/span>Maine is a northeastern liberal state with a significant student population. There are few blacks and very few Mormons. There is not a large Evangelical Christian population<\/strong>. <\/span>The forces working in the state for the abolition of the conjugal conception of marriage as the union of husband and wife had the strong support not only of the media, but also of the state\u2019s governor and other leading political figures. They had a significant funding advantage. <\/strong>On Election Day, they got the large turnout that they believed would assure them of victory. Yet, when the votes were counted, the people of Maine came down solidly in favor of restoring the conjugal conception of marriage that the state\u2019s legislature and governor attempted to abolish.\u201d (Lopez, “Winning with Marriage: Another year, another electoral victory.”)<\/a> (emphasis mine).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Prof. George clearly marks some of the usual suspects opposing gay marriage: Mormons, non-intellectuals, evangelical Christians, and African-Americans. George and editor Kathy Lopez from NRO argues that that since<\/span> none<\/strong> of these demographics are dominant in Maine, the reason must be that <\/span>Maine voters simply know the difference between right and wrong<\/strong>: (<\/span>“Why has gay marriage consistently lost when put in the hands of voters? Because what\u2019s true is true. Most people know in their own heart that marriage\u00a0is between a man and a woman<\/em>\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

Assuming that the answer to this question is a bit more complicated than “right” or “wrong,” I first turned to the U.S. Census Bureau for quick facts on <\/span>Maine<\/a> and <\/span>Washington<\/a>. Here we see that:<\/span><\/p>\n