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Historic post-election results

Freedom to Marry
November 8, 2006

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Press Release
MEDIA CONTACT:
Samiya Bashir, Director of Communications
samiya@freedomtomarry.org
Mobile: 917-617-8660

NEW YORK, NY: An historic night for lesbian and gay couples and their families proves that the more we engage the American public in an honest conversation about our lives, our love and our families, the mores we move the American people toward fairness.

In 2004, eleven states passed anti-gay ballot measures denying marriage and all family protections to committed gay and lesbian couples and their families by an average of more than 70% of the vote. Only two of those states had opposition which topped 40 percent in 2004, including Oregon (43%) and Michigan (41%). Last night, anti-gay ballot initiatives passed in only seven out of eight states, and by margins that had dropped down to only around 50% support. In five out of the eight states, those numbers dropped to below half, showing over 40% opposition to the measures in Virginia, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Colorado and Arizona.

"A shift in support on this scale usually takes decades to happen," said Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry and author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People's Right to Marry. "Thanks to the committed engagement of couples and families, gay and non-gay, across America, we are seeing a sea change happen very quickly."

For the first time, voters in one state, Arizona, rejected an attempt to write discrimination against gay and lesbian couples and their families into the state constitution. Proposition 107 was defeated by a margin of 51-49 percent.

"Civil rights victories are extremely rare in the early stages," continued Wolfson. "This is why it is always wrong to put the rights of any group of people up to a vote. However, we have seen both in Arizona, and in the other five states where significant gains have been made, that honest conversation centered on the truth about marriage and families works."

Freedom to Marry praises the people of Arizona, and the leadership of the No on Prop 107 campaign which helped Arizonans understand how the proposed amendment would cause real harm to committed lesbian and gay couples, and their families.

In two other states, Virginia and South Dakota, significant gains were made in opposition to these anti-gay attack measures. In South Dakota, where the margin was 52-48% in support of the amendment, South Dakotans Against Discrimination succeeded in making this one of the closest margins in history, besting even the margin of defeat of 2004's closest state, Oregon. Virginia's margin, 57-43%, was a tie with the Oregon's 2004 showing; something which many would have thought impossible just two years ago for a southern state.

"Americans want to see our families recognized and protected," said Wolfson. "As millions of Americans continue to see families protected by marriage in Massachusetts, they realize that ending the exclusion from marriage is the only way to offer that protection. Soon the hard work of couples, families and citizens in New Jersey, both gay and non-gay, will help Americans see even more families helped by ending discrimination in marriage, more communities strengthened, and no one hurt by fairness."

"Win or lose, we are involved in a steady campaign of engagement, based not on election cycles, but on patient and persistent conversations that give people the information they need, and the time required to absorb that information," said Evan Wolfson. "We are committed to engaging this conversation until we achieve an end to discrimination in all 50 states."

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Freedom to Marry is the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. Launched in 2003, Freedom to Marry is headed by Evan Wolfson, nationally recognized as a central "architect of the marriage equality movement." Freedom to Marry guides and focuses this social justice movement on a nationwide level, serving as a strategy and support center for national, state, and local partners, a catalyst that drives and shapes the national debate on marriage equality, and an alliance-builder fostering support from non-gay allies.