California

Thursday, Aug 28, 2008 13:55 PDT

Broadsheet

Same-sex marriage ban lags in California

Will love win the day at the ballot box in November?

By Katharine Mieszkowski

The latest poll show that 54 percent of likely voters in California plan to vote "no" on Proposition 8, which would reinstate the ban on same-sex marriage in California.

The poll, by the Public Policy Institute of California, found that in just eight years attitudes about same-sex marriage in the state have changed significantly. "In 2000, 55 percent of likely voters opposed same-sex marriage and 38 percent favored it; this year, 47 percent of voters oppose same-sex marriage and 47 percent favor it," reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

With Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi on the cover of People magazine in their double-bridal splendor, it's not hard to believe that public attitudes are really changing that quickly. It's only too bad that Del Martin, the pioneering lesbian activist and newlywed, who died Wednesday at age 87, did not live to hear the heartening news about this poll.

However, it's way too early for proponents of marriage equality in California to break out the champagne. Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, a gay and lesbian rights organization, cautioned: "We know the other side is about to launch a major campaign against same-sex marriage, so we still have a lot of work to do."