Andrew Sullivan disturbed by Catholic Church re gays in DC

Some statistics on attitudes during the November 2008 Gay marriage repeal in California:

66% of Democrats supported gay marriage, 71% of Republicans opposed it

Voters identified as non partisan supported gay marriage 59% to 34%

Among 18 to 29 year olds, 71% supported gay marriage

Voters 65 and older supported gay marriage by 37%  

From the linked article:

The survey showed that same-sex marriage continues to reverberate differently along race and generational lines. Just over half of whites backed it, while just under half of African Americans and Latinos did.

All three groups, however, opposed having to vote on it in 2010. (Asians were questioned by the poll and included in the overall sample, but their numbers were statistically too small to isolate.) Young voters continued to be far more supportive of gay marriage rights than their elders.

Who Passed Prop 8? Here's the List.

From the Washington Post, regarding the clergy in D.C:

But after being overshadowed by same-sex marriage opponents, religious leaders who back the concept are speaking out.

"The coalition here is able to identify across all lines, all wards of the city, all races, all backgrounds," said Nick McCoy, an organizer for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group. "People have come to the forefront with the argument that this something that churches don't back and believe in, and we say, that is not true."

The Rev. Louis Shockley of Asbury noted at the church service that the sanctuary was founded 173 years ago as a congregation for slaves.

"This congregation has always stood for social justice," he said. "We welcome all on this night to continue the march of justice by standing on the side of love."

At Monday's council hearing on Catania's bill, the religious officials backing same-sex marriage outnumbered those opposing it.

One supporter, the Rev. Christine Y. Wiley, pastor at Covenant Baptist Church in Southeast, noted that many District churches have a history of fighting for social and economic justice.

Wiley and her husband, the Rev. Dennis W. Wiley, helped form the coalition. "It just really seemed like a natural thing that we would do," Wiley said. "We believe as African Americans who have been discriminated against . . . we don't have the right to discriminate against anyone else."

About 10 people attended the group's first meeting in June. It now has a list of 169 supporters, including the Rev. Steve Huber of Washington National Cathedral and Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb of Adat Shalom in Bethesda.

The Rev. Patrick J. Walker, chairman of the Task Force Against Same Sex Marriage of the Missionary Baptist Ministers Conference of D.C. and Vicinity, said he understands that religious leaders have varying views of marriage. But he said he doesn't "understand it from what the Bible says in terms of traditional, biblical views. Where do you draw the line?"

Despite the activism on both sides, many area pastors are staying out of the debate.

"There is whole range of churches out there who aren't with us, but they are not with Harry Jackson either," Hardies said. "We are hoping to reach them through dialogue."

Bishop Harry Jackson, mentioned above, is the pastor of Hope Christian Church. He has joined others in attempting to obtain a referendum banning same-sex marriage in D.C.

Thanks Karen and Rhonda for all the pertinent info and links,  excellent additions.   Thanks Roy for your comments as well. 

You are very welcome, smk! As always, my pleasure!:)

The great majority of black, Hispanic and Asian people in California voted against it. Nothing in all those posts discredits that.

Gays are not chattel property. They have lots of rights. One that is not a right is to get married as if they are a heterosexual couple. California and other states have imperfect accommodations to this called civil unions which could be improved.

Narcissism is the prime motivator here. Gay activists are largely secularists who invest religious meaning in the state and want the state, the only God they know, to bless their union. They are like the people who think that a saint is only in heaven if the pope says it is so. Or like the Marxists who don't believe in God, but they embalm Lenin and Stalin and put them on display like some kind of religious icon.

You need to go within you and find the origins of your self in someone outside of the conscious mind. That is the only thing that will scratch that itch of "non-equality" for real.

Secularists are humanists who worship humanity itself, however and refuse to get it.

"Narcissism is the prime motivator here"    Why am I not surprised?  *beats head against wall,  sobbing silently*

That is nuts. You can't live with a civil union, or a mutual adoption in court as some of the gay men used to do?

Sobbing silently because you ain't the same as a heterosexual couple? Those are crocodile tears. Absolutely fake.

70% of California blacks who voted, voted for banning gay marriage. I would like to know what percentage of Washington, DC blacks think the same.

Hey, you think that Malcolm X would have supported gay marriage? And, what does Farrakhan say about homosexuality? 

Obama is against gay marriage.

Of course Farrakhan and Malcom X would be opposed to gay marriage.  I was sobbing because I saw "narcissism"  pop up again.  ;)  Just enjoy teasing you, and tweaking your mustache,   and watching you become mean---:)

From the Anti-Defamation League, a very, very liberal group:

Farrakhan In His Own Words

Yes,  African American men are traditionally against homosexuality, all of it,  not just gay marriage.  Obama does not support gay marriage.  It has been said that he had homosexual trysts.  A lot of people ( most people) have discounted it as nonsense,  but I would say that would fit in with his disparaging of gays, and his own self-conflict and psychological self-misunderstanding. 

Yes, and so would black Christian ministers and black members of the same churches.

Really, the gay marriage fight is a fight over forcing "Daddy and Mommy" to cede their special relationship, called a marriage, as the backbone of society, a place where love and lust come together to create humanity's future to any two people who want to call themselves a married couple.

The homosexual union is legitimate as a union, but it is not marriage and does not carry the same possibilities of  procreation and the representation of the masculine and the feminine harmonized in something greater than a person's self.

This is not about bullying in school and won't end bullying in school because the kid is gay. This doesn't end "DADT".

This aspect of gay civil rights is about etiquette and being blessed by the state. Civil unions solves the problem or will solve the problem without creating all this strife, but, see, I think that the strife is the point.

Just a guess, but the "gay" agenda will likely be seen as the defining defeat of the liberal left in America. Liberal ideology will see a long slide down the hill after that.

"If you already have civil unions, then what is this mania for gay marriage about? You don't think it is equal enough? Make it equal enough."

Repealing DOMA, Roy, will "Make it equal enough".

The crux of the issue (DOMA) denies married, civil unionized, and domestic partnership same-sex couples over 1,000 federal legal rights. 

And in addition: enact ENDA and end DADT.

When communities treat gays as equals, we will be one step closer to freedom, justice, and liberty for all.

Any people or institution standing in the way are blocking progress for all humanity. Churches of all kinds have a bad track record in that regard, IMO.

YJ

Last i was aware, homosexuals had exactly the same rights as everyone else.

Did someone change a law, and make it legal to discriminate against them?

That is because they aren't married. They are "partners".

Kova, are you a gay rights activist? What I mean is that everday you have a couple of new stories on gay rights and marriage and I was just curious. Of course I have no problem if you are or are not but I was just wondering.

No,  I am not an activist.  But I have a history with gay males,  as my husband and I stayed in Provincetown each summer,  and there they were!  I post to calm myself down, and I have a media feed, and up they come!  Didn't we go thru this before? ;)

To calm yourself down:)? I would never have guessed that, smk:)

I hope you are being sarcastic,  Rhonda?  Tee hee----:) I am a manic,  manic,  hyper person.  I cannot call myself an activist,  but I sure am active. ;)  And I have feeds that deliver stories to me,  like a never-ending revolving door.....