Sep 05, 2008  |  By: CHRIS JOHNSON  | COMMENTS     

DENVER — A majority of likely California voters oppose a proposed state constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage in the state, according to a recent survey.

The survey, published Aug. 27 by the Public Policy Institute of California, found that 54 percent of California voters oppose the measure, known as Proposition 8, while 40 percent support it.

The findings of the survey, conducted via phone interviews with 2,001 California residents from Aug. 12 to Aug. 19, are consistent with earlier polls showing that a majority of California voters oppose the amendment, which will be on the state ballot in November.

Steve Smith, a campaign consultant for Equality for All, the coalition fighting the amendment, said the survey results show that California voters are “not willing to eliminate” the right for gay couples to marry.

“They’re no longer willing to treat people differently under the law in the state of California,” he said.
But the survey also found that California voters are evenly split on same-sex marriage in general.
Same-sex nuptials are favored by 47 percent of respondents and opposed by another 47 percent.

Additionally, the survey found that eight in 10 believe that the outcome of Proposition 8 “is important.”

The survey’s results were released as Democrats met in Denver for the Democratic National Convention. For gay delegates attending the convention, the marriage amendments facing several states were hot topics.

In addition to California, voters in Florida and Arizona must decide whether to accept or reject marriage amendments this November. California is the only state among the three where same-sex marriage is permitted.

During a gay caucus meeting Aug. 25, Arizona State Del. Kyrsten Sinema (D), a bisexual and convention delegate, and Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, urged delegates to work together to defeat the initiatives.

In an interview with the Blade following the caucus, Sinema said she thinks the fate of the three marriage amendments facing different states “are all intertwined.”

“We have a duty as a community to do a trifecta and win all three,” she said. “I think a loss in any of those states will have a long-lasting, negative impact on our community.”

Sinema said poll numbers on the Arizona amendment “are looking better than they ever had before” because Arizona residents have seen gay couples getting married in California in the past few months.

Gay couples began exchanging vows in June after the California Supreme Court ruled in May that they had a fundamental right to marry.

In her speech before gay delegates, Sinema noted that Arizona defeated in 2006 an amendment to ban same-sex marriage that included more restrictive language than the current initiative. The failure of the 2006 proposal was the first time a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage failed at the polls.

Three ‘M’s

The delegate said Arizona rejected the 2006 amendment because opponents of the measure had three ‘M’s: message, messengers and money. Sinema said marriage amendments could be defeated in any state throughout the country by using these “three ‘M’s.”

For their message, Sinema said, Arizona activists “learned how to research and find the messages” to persuade swing voters to join with same-sex marriage supporters to defeat the amendment.

As far as messengers, Sinema asked gay delegates to return home and talk about how the measures would be detrimental to their families.

Sinema called money her most important “M” because it’s necessary to exceed the finances that anti-gay groups “have enjoyed over the years.”

“The truth is, that just outside these doors, the radical right is scared to hell about the people in this room,” she said. “And because they are scared of you and me and all of us in this room, they will fight tooth-and-nail to keep what they have and keep you from getting what you deserve.”Minter spoke specifically about the proposed amendment banning same-sex marriage in California. He said the gay community must have “leadership and unequivocal support” to defeat the California initiative.
“It is intended to take away our dignity, to take away our hope, to put us back into our place as second-class citizens,” he said. “Make no mistake, the political stakes for our community in California could not possibly be higher.”

In her interview with the Blade, Sinema also denied that the multiple campaigns against measures in different states were competing with resources from the gay community.

“I think that’s people who just want some salacious story — I’ll be honest,” she said.

In July, Stephen Gaskill, then-spokesperson for Florida Red and Blue, said the situation in California has made fundraising more of a challenge in Florida and said, “if ...