greeneyedboy's Journal - Mother Jones: gay marriage referenda actually helped Kerry in 2004

The more we know about 2004, the more we know how wrong the conventional wisdom was and has been: No, Bush didn't win. No, this wasn't a victory of right-wing so-called "values voters". And no, marriage initiatives did not win any states for Bush.

Kerry pollster Mark Mellman has found that anti-gay-marriage ballot initiatives didn't boost voter turnout for either party. Moreover, political scientists at MIT found that Bush's share of the 2004 vote increased in most battleground states, but not the three that had gay marriage bans on the ballot. Stephen Ansolabehere, one of the study's authors, concludes that the gay marriage referenda may have given Kerry a bump. "That suggests there might even be some sort of backlash against this kind of politics," he notes.

- from Mother Jones - www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2008/09/... (emphasis added)

Of course, we already knew that civil rights battles should not wait for the mythical time when no elections are on the horizon, and that pro-equality plaintiffs can't be expected to back out of their years-long case because the timing is inconvenient. We already knew that Karl Rove, not people fighting for their civil rights, "pushed the issue" in 2004. Now we know that it didn't even work. This should put an end to any more "those darn impatient gays!" nonsense about 2004.

In 2008, marriage equality is on the line in California. Out-of-state right-wing forces have poured millions into dishonest ads (claiming, among other things, that churches will lose their tax-exemption because of marriage equality--?!?), and the ads are working: the marriage ban has come from behind to take a narrow lead in recent polls. No on Prop 8 needs all the time and money you can give.

This campaign will have lasting effects nationwide. Please help make sure LGBT friends and family can celebrate the blue tsunami on November 5th wholeheartedly. You can phonebank from home, help out at one of the campaign's field offices in California, and most importantly, donate some money to preserve marriage equality.