Presidential candidate Barack Obama has expressed his opposition to Proposition 8, California’s proposed ban on gay marriage. But the people behind proposition are counting on Obama supporters to seal win for Prop 8… what gives?
Farhad Manjoo at Slate explains:
The Democrat is expected to bring a surge of black and Latino voters to the polls on Election Day. This spells trouble for gay marriage; in some surveys, minority voters have expressed much greater support for banning same-sex marriage than have whites. Chip White, a spokesman for the pro-Proposition 8 campaign, stopped short of saying that Obama’s presence on the ballot will help the measure. But he did point out that the campaign plans a big push in minority communities, especially through churches and other religious networks. “Traditional marriage initiatives have historically been supported by African-Americans,” he says. “We think this one will be no different.”
While this indicates some gloom for gay marriage proponents, some campaign finance details may indicate otherwise.
Stats released by the Nielsen Company showed that the “Young Digerati” segment of the US population were the largest donors to the Obama campaign, with over 80% of their support going to the Democrat. This segment, described as “comprised of affluent, highly educated, ethnically mixed and tech-savvy residents of fashionable urban fringe neighborhoods,” likely consists of employees for companies such as Apple and Microsoft who, at least in California, appear to overwhelmingly favor voting no on Proposition 8. As mentioned last week, $32,322 was raised to oppose Prop 8 between the folks at Mac and PC, while other employees at those companies only gave $6,695 in support of the proposition.
