When it comes to same-sex marriage, it turns out that many
Americans just don't care.
About 1,000 adults were asked as part of a new Associated
Press/IPSOS poll about how George W. Bush is handling the country,
how they might vote in the November Congressional elections, and
what they thought about some top issues.
Including gay marriage.
Now a couple years ago-say, after the Massachusetts marriage
debates-anti-gay marriage sentiment reached an all-time high, as
much as 63 percent. People were furious and they were fighting.
But in this most recent poll, what percentage thought gay
marriage was extremely important?
Only 22 percent, or about one in five.
Thirty-six percent said that gay marriage wasn't an important
issue at all and 11 percent called it only "slightly important."
Fifteen percent thought it was "moderately important"; 5 percent
called it "very important." One percent of respondents weren't
sure.
In fact, those polled adults thought that gay marriage was the
least important issue they were asked about, coming after
eight others including the economy, the situation in Iraq, health
care and gas prices.
These adults weren't all Northeastern liberals, either, or
secular city Dems. Most of them described themselves as
conservative or moderate; slightly more respondents came from the
South than from other areas of the United States; more of them were
from the suburbs or rural areas than from cities; the large
majority identified as Christian.
So. We have these 1,000 likely voters who are overwhelmingly
white, mostly Christian, mostly conservative to moderate, and
they're asked about same-sex marriage and THEY DON'T CARE.
They care more about social security than they do about gay
marriage. They care more about terrorism. Actually, they care more
about how much it costs to fill up their SUV than they do about
whether someone in the next town or next state-or heck, next
door-wants to marry someone of the same sex.
They're not for it. They're not against it. They just don't
understand why it's an issue.
And this, my friends, is a good thing.
Really.
Conservative leaders (read: Karl Rove) have been spinning media
webs for years, trying to insure that gay marriage becomes a wedge
issue, like abortion. They want equal marriage to stand for
everything that's wrong with America in the eyes of Mr. Mainstreet;
they want it to be shorthand for everything America fears. If gays
get marriage, they tell us, then no one will have marriage, because
marriage will be meaningless.
These leaders hoped that Americans would be so afraid of
instability caused by gays and lesbians that they would vote with
conservative Republicans on every issue, no matter how misguided,
in the belief that a vote for a Republican was a vote against gays,
and a vote against gays was a vote against moral depravity. For a
little while, it worked.
For a little while, liberals and moderate Republicans feared
that gay marriage might be the issue that kept neo-conservative
Republicans in the White House and in Congress for years to
come.
But Americans have seen marriage in Massachusetts and they've
seen civil unions in Vermont, and there are still straight people
getting married and there are married straight people doing things
that married straight people do.
Americans have come to realize that opening rights up to one
group doesn't mean taking rights away from another.
All this might explain why, in Illinois, anti-gay activists
recently stopped pushing for a referendum suggesting that the
state's gay marriage ban be written into the state constitution.
They were losing. So they gave up.
And in Virginia, Va4Marriage is struggling to raise money to
support the passage of a same-sex marriage ban. Much of the funds
they've raised so far-a measly $155,000-come from a single donor
who doesn't live in the state.
A populace that doesn't care that much about an issue isn't
going to fight against it.
Of course, a lot of this apathy must be because gay marriage has
quietly receded from the headlines. New York turned its back on
civil unions, as did California. Those defeats hurt, even though
I'm betting they are temporary.
But apathy on this issue is OK for now. Don't Ask, Don't Tell is
heading toward repeal. Let's take that major victory when it comes
as a sign that the country really is turning around on gay rights.
Let's take it as a herald for the eventual victory of marriage
equality.
Because we will get same-sex marriage. And the best thing that
could happen when that day comes is for America to hear the news,
shrug, and just not care.