Free Republic

Given the history of same-sex marriage referendums, poll results should be viewed skeptically There was a brief explosion of optimism from those supporting same-sex marriage in Maryland last week after a poll by Hart Research Associates indicated that voters in the state support it by a significant margin of 54-40. No state has ever approved gay marriage at the ballot box, but advocates here and elsewhere — The New York Times published a piece titled "Hopeful news from Maryland" — contend that the issue hasn't polled this well before either. They shouldn't get too excited just yet. Gay marriage is...

Minnesota's secretary of state is our state's chief elections official. His duty to impartially administer elections requires him -- more than any other constitutional officer --to remain above the fray of partisan politics. Yet on the proposed voter ID amendment, which he opposes, Mark Ritchie has replaced the Legislature's straightforward title with a fog of bureaucratic gobbledygook. . . . Ritchie pulled a similar stunt on the marriage amendment, substituting a title that polling shows will likely push the vote toward his favored result. ... Ritchie knows partisan politics is strictly off-limits in his job. He acknowledged this in a...

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, have given $2.5 million to fund efforts in the state of Washington to legalize same-sex marriage, effectively doubling the current electoral war chest of proponents. The gift was announced by Washington United for Marriage, the coalition working to pass Referendum 74 in November. It's believed to be the largest individual gift “to secure or protect the freedom to marry,” the group said in a statement released on its website. Washington is one of four states where the issue of same-sex marriage will be on the ballot this year.

Oral arguments for summary judgment will be heard tomorrow in a Hawaii lawsuit that not only challenges the state’s constitutional amendment preserving traditional marriage, but also asserts the new “civil unions” law doesn’t go far enough. According to court documents, Hawaii was poised to become the first state in the union to permit same-sex marriage back in 1996, when a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling found the state had no compelling interest to limit marriage to its traditional definition. But while a temporary stay on the ruling was in place, the voters of Hawaii passed a constitutional amendment giving the state...

A family advocacy group filed a lawsuit today against [Democrat] Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and Attorney General Lori Swanson. Minnesota for Marriage — chaired by John Helmberger, the CEO of the Minnesota Family Council — is fighting for the original title of a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, set for voters to decide on the Nov. 6 ballot. Last year, the Legislature approved the amendment for the ballot with the words “recognition of marriage solely between one man and one woman.” But Ritchie — with Swanson’s approval — last week...

After listening online to a recent sermon on "same-sex marriage" by John Piper. . . . I was surprised to read an article in the Star Tribune ("Key Minnesota pastors opt out of marriage fight," June 21) that misrepresented how Piper is addressing the November vote on a proposed marriage amendment to the Minnesota Constitution. [ . . . ] It's clear that Piper did, indeed, direct his church members to vote to approve the amendment. He did so by explaining how to think through this critical cultural issue biblically and logically, rather than merely telling them what to do...

The Minnesota South District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod voted at its convention in St. Paul late last week to support the state's proposed marriage amendment. The district includes 245 congregations in the Twin Cities and southern half of Minnesota. Clergy and lay representatives approved a resolution affirming marriage as the union of a man and woman and were encouraged to support the proposed amendment on Nov. 6 that would add that definition to the state's constitution, according to a news release from church officials. The Minnesota North District approved a similar resolution in April. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is...

Remember when Big Business was conservative and was protested by hippies and leftists? Well now, socially speaking, corporate titans are siding with the Left against historic Judeo-Christian values – and God-fearing Christians and Jews are chiding the soulless, capitalist sellouts. The latest Behemoth to kick the Creator to the curb is General Mills — seemingly right up there with apple pie and motherhood as a symbol of American wholesomeness, but no more. General Mills is maker of these iconic breakfast cereals: Cheerios Chex Cinnamon Toast Crunch Fiber One Kix Lucky Charms Monsters Total Trix Wheaties In bowing to the revolutionary,...

ay marriage opponents in Maryland said Tuesday they’ve handed in more than double the signatures required to hold a ballot referendum to squash the state’s new same-sex marriage law. . . “What we’re finding is that people are just engaged and passionate about this, even after Obama and the NAACP came out” in support of gay marriage," McCoy said. “Anybody that was on the fence is no longer on the fence.” A similar effort is under way in Washington state, where legislation approving same-sex marriage was signed into law by the governor earlier this year. Six states and the District...

For the third year in a row, a narrow majority of Americans consider gay and lesbian relations morally acceptable, signaling that this is the new “new normal” in public opinion, according to a new Gallup Poll released Monday just days after President Barack Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage. More than half of American adults, 54 percent, say gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable — including 66 percent of Democrats and just 36 percent of Republicans — while 42 percent think they are morally wrong, Gallup found. Since 2010, a slight majority of Americans have found gay relations...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's campaign says he's "disappointed" with North Carolina's constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Obama campaign spokesman Cameron French said in a Tuesday statement that the ban on same-sex unions is "divisive and discriminatory." French says same-sex couples deserve the same rights and legal protections as straight couples. North Carolinians overwhelming voted Tuesday to amend their state constitution, strengthening a state law that already outlawed same-sex unions.

North Carolina already bans gay marriage by statute. Amendment One goes beyond confining marriage to heterosexual couples; it amends the constitution to also makes marriage between a man and a woman “the only domestic legal union” recognized in the state.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina voters have approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman, making it the 30th state to adopt such a ban. With 35 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday, unofficial returns showed the amendment passing with about 58 percent of the vote to 42 percent against.

On Tuesday, North Carolina will vote on a state constitutional amendment that declares, “Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized,” thereby banning recognition of same-sex marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships of any kind... The most recent poll was conducted by Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank whose poll results have generally shown little partisan bias in the past. That survey polled Democratic and Republican primary voters separately, but projected that the measure would win by 16 percentage points when it combined the results. An April poll by...

WINSTON-SALEM - Billy Graham on Wednesday released a statement on the proposed marriage amendment in North Carolina. The 93-year-old Graham has a full-page advertisement scheduled to run in 14 state newspapers.

Minnesotans are deeply divided over whether the state Constitution should be amended to define marriage as only the union of a man and woman, according to a Star Tribune Minnesota Poll. A year before they face the issue on the ballot, 48 percent of Minnesotans favor such an amendment while 43 percent oppose it. That falls within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. The poll of 807 adults statewide, conducted Nov. 2-3, shows that battle lines will be drawn on clear partisan, generational, educational and geographic fractures. Significant majorities of older voters, Republicans, voters...

A block thrown through a home window. Cars vandalized. Hate-filled anonymous phone calls at home and work. Swastikas scrawled on houses of worship. Physical assaults. Dismissal from employment because of political views. Are these examples of retaliation against civil-rights activists in the South in 1954? Attempts by an authoritarian government to quash dissent? No, this is the sort of intimidation that Americans who support marriage as the union of a man and woman can face today. Persecution of opponents is becoming a tool of the trade for some gay-marriage activists, who -- ironically -- seem to view themselves as beacons...

My friend and colleague, Mark Osler, gives good advice in his recent commentary "May inevitable year of debate be constructive" (Oct. 15). He counsels Minnesotans discussing the marriage-protection amendment (commonly misidentified as the gay-marriage amendment) to avoid insulting those they are in conversation with, and to "argue toward the principles the other side professes." I would add one more piece of advice: Know the facts. Marriage has been defined as the union of one man and one woman since Minnesota's days as a territory. Supporters of the marriage-protection amendment want to retain this definition because we think redefining marriage to...

.“Our friends in New York six weeks ago passed a statute that said marriage can be between two people of the same sex. And you know what? That’s New York, and that’s their business, and that’s fine with me,” he said to applause from several hundred GOP donors in Aspen, Colo. “That is their call. If you believe in the 10th Amendment, stay out of their business.”

(CNSNews.com) - Five of the seven Republican presidential candidates participating in a debate in New Hampshire last night said they would favor a constitutional amendment to define marriage in the United States as between a man and a woman. Only businessman Herman Cain and Rep. Ron Paul said they did not favor an amendment. New Hampshire Union Leader reporter John DiStaso raised the marriage issue by asking Rep. Michele Bachmann whether she would come into the state of New Hampshire as president and campaign to overturn the state's law allowing same-sex marriage.