Dissecting the defeat of Arizona’s Proposition 107, the anti-gay marriage amendment

There is a lot of interesting tidbits to glean from exit polls. The analysis of these polls gives us insight into who voted to pass the anti-gay marriage amendment and who voted against it:

Andrew dumbs it down so we don’t have to:

Women are marginally more in favor of gay unions than men - but it's not that big a gender gap. Men split 50-50. Women broke 53 - 47 against a constitutional ban. The under-30s voted against the amendment by a whopping 61 to 39 percent. I expect in a decade or so that many of these amendments will be repealed by similar margins. Education is a key indicator of being anti-gay or not. Those with dropped out of high school favored the amendment by a huge 65 to 35 percent. Those who graduated college opposed it by a narrow margin. Post-grads were overwhelmingly opposed.

The only ethnic group to favor the amendment by a large margin was black, by 61 - 39 percent. Karl Rove's attempt to peel off a few black votes by gay-bashing was not stupid. It was based on the data. African-Americans are easily the ethnic group most hostile toward gay rights. The reasons may have more to do with education and class than race. But black homophobia exists - as any inner-city resident knows only too well.

Pam does an even better dumb down of the breakdown:

Against the amendment:
* moderates
* college grads
* white men
* white women
* voters earning over $50K
* younger voters
* city dwellers

Split:
* Hispanics

For the amendment:
* majority of blacks
* seniors
* conservative Republicans
* folks in the stix

Pam also linked to some really uplifting comments accompanying an AZStar online article regarding the failure of Proposition 107 - a spattering of which I just cannot resist posting here (last I looked there were 134 comments):

*Thank you again, Arizona. Reason and justice prevailed. Discrimination lost. It's about time.

*First, we have a governor that receives POSITIVE national recognition, now Arizona has defeated a very discriminitory ballot measure. This makes me proud to be an Arizonan.

*This is such a non-issue for so many Americans that I just want to open the doors and leave it alone forever. We don't need lawmakers and police stalking law-abiding taxpayers.

*What other people want to do with their lives is their business, as long as it does not affect me. Prop 107 is wrong headed in that is puts other peoples snouts in the personal and private business of consenting adults, who, by virtue of being adults, have the legal right (within the confines of law) to run their private lives as they see fit.The rejection of prop 107, as I see it, is not an endorsement of gay marriage, domestic partnerships or any similar issues. It is however, an affirmative step to give individuals the right to “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Dang it’s nice to be able to say I live in the first state to see through this crap and vote down a discriminatory anti-gay marriage amendment on the ballot. And even though I am absolutely sure we will see some sort of watered down version back on the ballot in 2008, I am not going to let it rain on my parade right now. Nope, no hateful homophobe is going to ruin this Seething Mom’s celebration. Arizona sent a message with this one: stay the hell out of our private lives, leave consenting adults alone.

It’s just a damn shame that the tenacity, perseverance, and determination expended to enshrine hate and discrimination into our constitution couldn’t be used to alleviate hunger, suffering, and poverty instead. It really is a travesty. And so un-Jesus like too.