Blog Post
August 24, 2010
Of the 700,266 same-sex unmarried partners counted by the U.S. Census Bureau, one in seven of them reside in California, according to an analysis by Social Explorer.
The Social Explorer website provides demographic analysis in a limited free format and via a more robust subscription service. The site blog also features certain stats pertinent to current social events.
With the recent overturning of California's ban on same-sex marriage, which voters passed as Proposition 8 in November 2008, Social Explorer parsed out the Census data.
"In 2000, 594,391 residents of the U.S. identified as being in same-sex unmarried couples. That number increased to 700,266 – one in seven of which live in California, according to the 2006-08 American Community Survey," according to the post.
While the litigation surrounding Proposition 8 wends its way through the legal system, the next governor of California may color how the state responds to the continuing fight over same-sex marriage.
Meg Whitman said she would defend Proposition 8 and believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. Jerry Brown, on the other hand, said he supports same-sex marriage. Take a look at the statements made by the candidates on the topic of gay marriage on our Politics Verbatim site.
Blog Post
January 29, 2010
UPDATE: The Courage Campaign has filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission against attorney Andy Pugno over using state resources to communicate with a Mormon attorney about an anti-gay marriage initiative.
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Andy Pugno, the lead attorney defending Proposition 8, once worked for state Sen. William J. "Pete" Knight, the Palmdale Republican who spearheaded California's first successful ballot measure to outlaw gay marriage. On Feb. 26, 1998, Pugno wrote a memo to a Utah lawyer with close ties to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, regarding the initiative Pugno was crafting:
Photo: Dave Schumaker
"We urgently need you to review the proposed text and respond to two key questions before the close of business tomorrow," Pugno wrote to Lynn D. Wardle, a law professor at Brigham Young University. "Senator Knight will be re-filing language for a ballot initiative on Monday morning – and plans are laid to definitely qualify the measure for the ballot."
Blog Post
January 15, 2010
An attorney for Protect Marriage, which is helping defend Proposition 8 in federal court, is demanding the Courage Campaign remove a Web site logo that mirrors its own. Rather, the same-sex marriage logo is identical to the anti-gay marriage logo, except that it features two women and their two children, instead of a male-female couple and their two children.
The courage campaign said their own logo is clearly a parody.
Julia Rosen writes on her blog: "They are upset that we are parodying them and are making themselves out to be victims again. It’s just ridiculous. It’s very clear that our logo is a parody, and they are just freaking out about an image depicting a family of two mothers with two kids. The ProtectMarriage.com logo was originally used as the pro-Prop. 8 logo, you know the proposition this trial is about … that little thing."
Through its attorney, Protect Marriage says the Courage Campaign is engaging in copyright infringement, and they have issued a cease-and-desist demand. The group's Ohio attorney, John M. Skeriotis, gave the same-sex marriage group two days to remove the image from the face of the Earth or they would consider a lawsuit.
Blog Post
January 14, 2010
Even though the public won't be able to watch the same-sex marriage trial on YouTube, a remarkable amount of information is being filtered out of the courtroom by both sides of the debate, through Twitter and blogging, as Margaret Talbot in the New Yorker points out.
Photo by Dave Schumaker
The Alliance Defense Fund, which supports Proposition 8, has been ripping through Twitter with dozens of posts a day. Their most recent missive concerned historian George Chauncey, who has been testifying in the case, Perry vs. Schwarzenegger: "Chauncey reluctantly agrees, nothing wrong with considering moral values when voting, pivots to false, tiresome race segregation analogy."
And more: "Chauncey obvious discomfort, Prop8 attorney reads his own words back to him that conflict with dark picture he painted yesterday" Or: "Chauncey struggles to square many statements praising growing acceptance, Day2 testimony was how bad things are for same-sex couples"
