Marriage Equality wins at the ballot for the first time

[Pint0 Xtreme]

BREAKING: We just won Minnesota.

[Connor MacLeod]

I'm seeing nearly 90% reporting, and the rejection is up by a significant margin (over at bout 100,000+ now) where are you seeing the victory?

Edit: nevermind, huffingtonpost just changed it as I posted. Slow refresh

so, three things I can be happy about so far

[Pint0 Xtreme]

A call made from a major player from the Freedom to Marry organization. No official news yet but it's looking pretty much that way.

[Connor MacLeod]

Well I'm still hoping, but I'm not sure its that safe yet, and its dipped below once before.

One of the things I notice when I check the polling trends by county is that oyu have what amounts to alot of 'small town' regions (places where the populations are in the thousands, tops which means alot of small towns and settlements which Minnesota is full of) tended to vote overwhelmingly in favor of the amendment.

[Connor MacLeod]

I stand corrected:

Minnesota rejects gay marriage ban in constitution

That's a step in the right direction. One more vote to go.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

As someone who couldn't sleep on election night four years ago due to despair (from Prop 8 passing), it is a welcome change that I am finding it hard to sleep tonight due to abundant joy!

[Connor MacLeod]

It does stand as a kind of fucked-up testament to this country where you could be happy that only slightly more than 1/5th of the country will let you, another 1/5 (including my state) forbids it by statute.

Bleh don't mind me, I'm glad things turned out the way they did but I also wish MN was doing more than just voting on a fucking amendment. I admire your optimisim and ability to take what victories you can despite the fact you live in a country which still treats you like a second class citizen. Here's to hoping that this upcoming year brings even more rapid change!

[Pint0 Xtreme]

Thanks for your support, Connor! We'll be looking closely at the Supreme Court from now on. If they need more (political) excuses to strike down DOMA or Prop 8, they fucking got it tonight!

[Dominus Atheos]

So it won in 4 states, how many states was it on the ballot in?

[Questor]

I'm pretty sure it was 4, might have been 5.

It was 5, these 4 and North Carolina

[The Duchess of Zeon]

North Carolina was last year. 4 out of 4.

[Admiral Drason]

Today is a great day to be a Minnesotan Now lets see if we can legalize gay marriage in another election cycle or two.

[Questor]

North Carolina was last year. 4 out of 4.

Oops, you're right, it was in may.

What kind of genius would sort a list by year, then not by month?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

North Carolina was last year. 4 out of 4.

Oops, you're right, it was in may.

What kind of genius would sort a list by year, then not by month?

Heh, I thought it was last year, I honestly forgot it was in May, for what it was worth. Time seems to pass much faster when you're busy.

[Ziggy Stardust]

So from what I gather Minnesota managed to reject the amendment, correct? But Bachmann squeezed through a victory.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

So from what I gather Minnesota managed to reject the amendment, correct? But Bachmann squeezed through a victory.

So she did. We can't win every election but last night broke even my most optimistic expectations.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

Washington State finally called it in officially (though there was little doubt it would pass late last night). And that's game, folks!

[The Duchess of Zeon]

It's the usual maudlin fact of Washington races: We did it first, but our sensible voting system is rather slow, so we don't get the credit, heh.

Anyway, wonderful news all around!

[Guardsman Bass]

I've heard the news is good in Iowa, too. The Democrats maintained control of the state Senate (meaning that the Republicans won't get a majority that could overturn the legalization of gay marriage), and one of the judges who overturned the state's ban on gay marriage kept his post.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

I've heard the news is good in Iowa, too. The Democrats maintained control of the state Senate (meaning that the Republicans won't get a majority that could overturn the legalization of gay marriage), and one of the judges who overturned the state's ban on gay marriage kept his post.

I heard that as well. Very good news this year. New Hampshire's marriage equality law also appears to be safe. And Rhode Island's picked up a few pro-LGBT state legislators; they'll definitely be looking at that state as the next place to enact a marriage equality law in the country. Several years ago, gay rights organizations embarked on a "Six By Twelve" campaign - that is they had a goal to legalize marriage for same-sex couples in the six New England states by 2012 (MA, CT, VT, NH, ME and RI). So they missed one. I'm sure they're eager rectify that miss as soon as possible.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

I'm not gay or bi. I'm not even American. But right now, my civilrights-boner is erect enough to be magnetically aligned to the North Pole.

[Slacker]

I heard that as well. Very good news this year. New Hampshire's marriage equality law also appears to be safe. And Rhode Island's picked up a few pro-LGBT state legislators; they'll definitely be looking at that state as the next place to enact a marriage equality law in the country. Several years ago, gay rights organizations embarked on a "Six By Twelve" campaign - that is they had a goal to legalize marriage for same-sex couples in the six New England states by 2012 (MA, CT, VT, NH, ME and RI). So they missed one. I'm sure they're eager rectify that miss as soon as possible.

Yeah, but at the same time they picked up New York, Washington, and Maryland, so I'm sure they're somewhat pleased. Wouldn't surprise me to see New Jersey go in the next year or two, especially if Christie says fuckit and stakes out the "I'm the moderate sane guy in my party" position in the forthcoming Republican Ragnorak.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Yes, we now have nine states with full legal gay marriage (WA, NY, MD, CT, MA, VT, NH, ME, IA), one territory (DC) the same, and several Indian tribes (The Coquille Indian Tribe of Oregon recognizes marriages lawfully despite Oregon as a whole banning them due to Indian preemption rights by treaty, and the Suquamish Indian Tribe of Washington State--now folded into the broader Washington law--did the same for the past year) also the same, and one state (Rhode Island) where there is a formal state government policy to recognize same-sex marriages performed out of state, and one state (New Mexico), where there is no such formal government policy but the State Attorney General says it is his legal opinion that such unions are legally recognized in New Mexico and some out of state couples have used their marriage licenses as proofs of name changes and so on. Finally pre-November 2008 MA and Canadian (and possibly from a few European countries) marriages are recognized in California alongside pre-November 2008 California marriages.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Fun fact: In the subsidiary Approve counties: Whatcom, Thurston, Snohomish, Kitsap, Island (San Juan and Jefferson county are very special places which actually are outpolling urban Seattle despite being rural, for obscure reasons of island and isolated peninsular culture in Washington State), subsidiary because of their smaller populations to the all-dominating King County of Washington State, as the late votes are counted now arriving in the mail today, tomorrow, etc, the percentage in favour of gay marriage is going up by one to two percent in each county compared to the early return ballots. This means that the people who voted close to election day, after the utterly massive NOM propaganda barrage, actually turned more decisively in favour of marriage--NOM's campaign actually made Washington voters vote for marriage and the anti-marriage groups may have polled better in Washington if they'd ignored the state instead of barraging it with ads. I wonder if this is an effect of the insular culture of Washington State which is very resentful of outsiders meddling in our endlessly softcore compromise and consensus politics, or indicative of a broader trend of people literally just getting fed up with the barrage of lies that have simply stopped passing the "smell test" as it were.

[Dalton]

THIS JUST IN...

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2012-11-08 16:20
    NBC News declares Yes as the projected winner in Washington - Ref 74: Same Sex Marriage