New York, and Populations

[abqdan]

Congratulations to New York, where they did it the 'right way' - or at least the Christians used to think it was the 'right way' - allowing the legislature decide the issue of marriage equality. Our opponents have often argued that we only won our civil rights through judicial activism - well, not this time. The numbers are interesting (from the census bureau 2009 figures):

State	Population
Connecticut	3,518,288
Washington DC	599,657
Iowa	3,007,856
Massachusetts	6,593,587
New Hampshire	1,324,575
New York	19,541,453
Vermont	621,760
TOTAL	35,207,176

The opposition might say 'well, only six states allow marriage equality', implying that isn't very impressive; but when you look at the total population of the country (307,006,500) then the percentage with access to marriage comes in at 11.46%. It's becoming difficult for the Christian radicals to categorize this as insignificant.

And in the past, the Supreme Court has generally been conservative with a small 'c' on social change. But once they see a trend in society, they are more likely to vote with that trend on social issues. So this might also help with the court.

If the Prop 8 decision is upheld on appeal, an extra 36,961,664 people would be granted marriage equality - that would bring the national percentage to 23.5%; which would be reason enough for a whole lot more celebrating!!

Comments

[pdxchuck.livejournal.com]

Thanks for providing that perspective.