The Los Angeles Times has a new poll out which shows that a majority of voters in Los Angeles County support marriage equality.
In the state's continuing political battles over gay marriage, both sides are targeting Latino voters, and a new Los Angeles Times poll illustrates why. Overall, the poll showed, a substantial majority of voters in Los Angeles support the right of same-sex couples to legally marry, with 56% in favor and 37% opposed.Oy vey. Black opposition to marriage equality "was widely seen as a major factor contibuting to the passage of Proposition 8"? Really? Only by people who believe in the zombie meme, which apparently includes Cathleen Decker of the Los Angeles Times.
That finding closely tracked the results of November's election in which Proposition 8, which limited marriage to unions of a man and a woman, won statewide but lost in Los Angeles. [MadProfessah Note, this is factually incorrect! Proposition 8 passed by less than 3,000 votes out of more than 3 million cast.] But the poll also showed that within the city, views on the issue differed widely among racial and ethnic groups.
White voters were most emphatic in their support for same-sex marriage, with 68% supporting it and 27% opposing. African American voters were strongly against it, with 54% opposing same-sex marriage and 37% supporting it.
Opposition to gay marriage by African Americans was widely seen as a major factor contributing to the passage of Proposition 8. Latinos in the current poll were split, with 45% supporting same-sex marriage and 46% opposing.
However, the important result here is hard data on the majority opposition to marriage equality among African Americans, which MadProfessah and others are fighting to change. Additionally, the knowledge that Latinos are basically evenly split on the question (the margin of error was given 2.6 percentage points) is also useful information.
What's left out? It's odd that the Times didn't include information of how Asian Pacific Islanders feel about marriage equality, especially in light of the success of API Equality in moving their community on this issue.
