Editor’s Note: A version of this article was published by Fox News. Click here to read it.
As much as I respect Gallup and their polling, I am skeptical of their latest poll showing a majority of support for same-sex “marriage.” The supporters of allowing same-sex “marriage” are certainly loud at times but they are most certainly in the minority.
When given the chance to vote on this issue, 31 out of 31 states voted against “gay marriage,” even in liberal states Michigan, Oregon, Hawaii and California (twice). The supporters have grasped their hands tightly around the argument that Judge Vaughn Walker – the judge who ruled the ban on “gay marriage” was unconstitutional and who is homosexual himself – made when he equated race with marriage: “Race and gender restrictions shaped marriage during eras of race and gender inequality, but such restrictions were never part of the historical core of the institution of marriage. Today, gender is not relevant to the state in determining spouses’ obligations to each other and to their dependents.” That did not go over well with African-Americans especially.
Bishop Harry Jackson, head of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, said he was particularly offended by Judge Walker’s language: “The implicit comparison Judge Walker made between racism and marriage is particularly offensive to me and to all of us who remember the reality of Jim Crow. It is not bigotry, it is biology that discriminates between same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples.”
It seems many African-Americans would agree with him. In the 2008 elections in California, African-Americans turned out in droves to the polls, with eight of ten voting for Barack Obama. Of these same voters, 70 percent voted for Prop 8 and in favor of traditional marriage.
In March of this year, the Maryland House of Delegates abandoned a bill that would have legalized same-sex “marriage.” The Washington Blade, a homosexual media outlet, wrote on its blog that homosexual lobbying groups learned a key lesson: “Do not underestimate the influence of black pastors. Equality Maryland failed to solidify support among black lawmakers from Baltimore City and Prince George’s County. And when the preaching began on Sundays in February, several black delegates caved under the pressure.”
The supporters of same-sex “marriage” will pull no punches when it comes to solidifying their agenda into law. The extent to which they harassed and threatened the pro-Prop 8 supporters in California was just a taste of the hatred they have for those of us who want marriage to remain between one man and one woman.
Since donors’ names are public in California if they make a donation greater than $100, Prop 8 dissenters had a target list and weren’t afraid to use it. One man was the subject of a flyer that was distributed in his home town and called him a “bigot” and stated his association with a particular Catholic Church and listed his donation to Prop 8. In another case two women painted the words “bigots live here” on the window of an SUV in front of a house whose residents supported traditional marriage.
And African-Americans were especially targeted. One man reported he was called a racial slur twice for attending an anti-Prop 8 protest; he suggested it “was like being at a klan rally except the klansmen were wearing Abercrombie polos and Birkenstocks.” Even black same-sex partners, who were outrightly supporting “gay marriage,” were subjects of racial abuse.
They didn’t stop there. One supporter of “gay marriage” punched a man who was waiting to distribute “Yes on Prop 8” signs outside of a Catholic Church before the vote and had to have 16 stitches. And an angry crowd in San Francisco turned on a small group of Christians, shouting the words “haters” and “bigots” and throwing hot coffee, soda, and alcohol on the group. One woman was even struck in the head with her own Bible before being kicked on the ground.
Marching with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil rights and racial equality is not the same as marching for legalizing same-sex “marriage,” as many homosexual groups want everyone to believe. Race is not the same as “sexual orientation,” and many African-Americans see the difference.
Emmett Burns, Jr., a Democrat in the Maryland House of Delegates, has been the subject of spiteful and hate-filled targeting by gay and lesbian groups for his outspoken support of traditional marriage. During testimony he said that “I would not have been able to sit here as a member of the General Assembly during segregation, based on the color of my skin. But gays and lesbians could. No one asked their sexual orientation when they ran for office. I cannot hide my color. To say the two are on equal par is anathema to me.”
Delegate Burns said that he has received threats and been called a bigot and the N-word for his outspoken stance against homosexual marriage.
So maybe it’s possible that the respondents to the Gallup polling did not want to voice their support for traditional marriage for fear of being bullied and called a bigot? At least when voters go to the polls, their votes are anonymous and they have no fear of retaliation for not supporting a radical agenda. Just ask any of us who have dared to say publicly that it is essential as a foundational institution of society that marriage be recognized for what it is: a covenant between one man and one woman for life.