Interesting maps to compare

[mmcirvin]

Well, the 2012 election put to rest once and for all the idea that Americans will never vote to legalize same-sex marriage. In that light, it's interesting to compare these two maps from Wikipedia:

Legal status of same-sex marriage in the US, by state
Public opinion of same-sex marriage in the US, by state

Public opinion is way out ahead of the law. In California, Oregon, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, and Florida, there's majority public support for same-sex marriage and a constitutional ban. That's a substantial chunk of the country. In the latter three, the bans are so strong that they also prohibit civil unions.

It was always pretty clear that the great wave of state-constitutional bans in 2004-2008 was a rear-guard action to lock in opposition before it evaporated, but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly. The wave of SSM legalization will probably slow down a bit in the near future just because of the greater procedural difficulty of amending state constitutions.

Comments

Re: Maybe not in California...

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...or is the difficulty in California that of amending the constitution in such a way that it won't just be amended right back again in the next low-turnout election? I can see that being a problem.