Posted: 11/10/06
Same-sex marriage bans
a mixed bag at the polls
By Robert Marus
ABP Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (ABP)—Gay-rights supporters and opponents both claimed victory after the Nov. 7 midterm elections, with voters in seven states approving same-sex marriage bans and Arizona becoming the first state in the country to reject such an amendment.
The measure failed narrowly, with 51.4 percent opposed to Proposition 107 and 48.6 percent in favor.
In the seven other states where marriage bans passed, most received a comfortable majority. Nonetheless, the margins were narrower, on average, than in the 13 states that approved similar bans in 2004.
In South Dakota—overwhelmingly rural and with high percentages of white Catholic and evangelical voters—the marriage amendment passed on a 52-48 percent vote.
And in Virginia, voters approved the measure on a 57-43 percent vote. That matches the margin of victory for a 2004 anti-gay-marriage amendment in much more liberal Oregon.
Most of the 2004 gay-marriage amendments passed by majorities of 70 percent or more. But on Nov. 7, such ballot measures garnered support exceeding 60 percent in only three of eight states—Idaho (63 percent), South Carolina (78 percent) and Tennessee (81 percent).
Either way, the constitutions of a majority of states now explicitly ban same-sex marriage. Many of those also ban “civil unions,” legal arrangements approximating the status of marriage for same-sex couples. That shows Americans still oppose gay marriage and continue to fear judicial decisions will impose legalized same-sex marriage on an unwilling populace, according to the head of one conservative Washington think tank.
“We see once again (that) when traditional marriage is put to the people, they will support traditional marriage,” said Jim Tonkowich, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, in a statement.
In a related matter, Colorado voters also rejected a bid to institute domestic partnerships for same-sex couples.
As of late afternoon Nov. 8, it appeared that voters had rejected by a 53-47 percent margin a proposition to create the marriage-like relationships.
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