gay marriage

Rick Santorum made the mistake of using Suffolk University in Concord, New Hampshire (where gay marriage is legal) this week for his anti-equality policies that got him into the unfortunate google trouble. When asked by a college student why his policies on equality didn't include LGBT couples, Santorum compared it to polygamy and then avoided discussion when the conversation turned against him.

"After several students tried to interject, Santorum said he would end the debate, insisting "I'm going to give people one more chance and then we are going to move on."

Santorum had seen a surge coming out of the caucus in Iowa where he was in the #2 spot by just 8 votes below Romney. But after word of the University students cold reception spread it seems Santorum's surge has plateaued, according to a two day tracking poll done by Suffolk.

"Santorum's support among independents, who can vote in New Hampshire's Republican contest, dropped from 6 percent to 3 percent after the college event, according to Suffolk's findings. His support from 18 to 34 year olds dropped from 9 percent to 2 percent."

It was comments on marriage and quality this that got Santorum into trouble with The Google several year ago, you'd think he'd learn...

Some quick hits for you as we head into the weekend (or, perhaps, just the end).

• A Washington Post piece asks if college is worth it
• Ezra Klein flags a graphic showing the percentage of recent college grads with jobs, by major.
  

  

• Speaking of college, here are ten reasons to get pumped for life following graduation.
• Nebraska's 4H organization and the YMCA team up to offer youth entrepreneur classes. An interesting partnership and initiative.
• CBS writes up the story we covered yesterday regarding Rockefeller's belief that young people are morally hollow. (Apparently 13 more people like him on Facebook between yesterday and today.)
• New Hampshire is aging.
• The Pope knows what's up--at least regarding the wisdom of listening to young people.
• Two young candidates in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area won primaries this week.
• Young Canadian city council candidate links young people to the local community.
• UK developing youth "underclass"
• The government: Just say no to sexting.
• Young people afraid to call themselves feminists.
• When will the GOP realize they are on the wrong side of history?

Crossposted from OurTime.Org

Mark Blumenthal has a piece up at the Huffington Post about our campaign against what we called the Bad CNN Polls.

After explaining the situation and the campaign Our Time launched to hold CNN accountable, he said this whole debacle comes down to two questions.

First, why are CNN's pollsters having so much trouble reaching younger Americans? Second, does it matter that CNN's landline sample misses so many younger Americans that it has to weight the youngest age group up by a factor of at least three?

The answer to the first question is easy: CNN's unweighted poll was light on younger Americans because their sample covered only households with a landline telephone. As documented by the National Center for Health Statistics, the percentage of American households with a cellphone but no landline telephone service has been steadily rising over the last ten years, especially among younger Americans. As of last year, 24.9 percent of all adults have wireless service only, but among those aged 25 to 29 years that number is now more than half -- 51.3 percent. . .

The second question -- can CNN factor in its lack of young adults? -- is tougher. The answer, according to the available data, is that demographic weighting alone does not entirely make up for its missing cellphone-only respondents.

The best support for this conclusion comes from a series of studies involving parallel surveys using dual samples of both landline and mobile phones. Pew Research, which conducted the surveys, has produced a series of reports since 2007 comparing the weighted results obtained by combining landline and mobile phone samples with those obtained from landline calling only."

There's a whole lot more to read over at HuffPo - check it out and sign the petition to hold CNN accountable!

Crossposted with permission from the OurTime Blog

Today, CNN.com released poll results from interviews with 824 "adult Americans" asking their opinions on the legalization of marijuana and gay marriage. The only problem? They left out a pretty big section of "Adult Americans."

If you feel like your voice should be heard vote here on your thoughts on marriage and legalization.

In response to the prompt, “Do you favor or oppose the legalization of marijuana?” 41% of “adults” said they favor it, 56% opposed, and 2% had no opinion on the matter. The results for “Do you think marriages between gay and lesbian couples should or should not be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages?” showed 51% of “adults” saying that they should be recognized as valid, 47% saying they should not be recognized as valid, and 2% saying they have no opinion.

American adults tend to be evenly divided on topics like this – no surprise on the numbers here. However, what is incredibly surprising is that CNN.com posted these results despite the fact that they include no respondents between the ages of 18-34.

Regardless of your opinion, you have a right to have an opinion, and for that opinion to be factored into poll results by one of the most trafficked news sites in America. Since 18-34-year-old’s were kept out of the conversation entirely, this is not an accurate poll and should not be labeled as such.

And in case you wanted to know that opinion, unlike the folks over at CNN, I can tell you that young Americans tend to be a little more open minded and focused on individual freedoms than older Americans do. A 2004 study (PDF) of young Americans by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) overwhelmingly support equality in every respect. With 56% supporting full marriage rights and 63% supporting civil unions. That number jumped to six in ten young voters under 30 in 2010, according to the Washington Post

California's Proposition 19 during the 2010 election similarly saw huge favorability by young voters:

"Support was strongest among voters between 18 and 24, who went for it 64% to 36%. Voters between 25 and 29 narrowly backed it, 52% to 48%. But voters under 30 made up just 13% of the electorate, about the same as is typical in a midterm election. In presidential election years, these voters are at least 20% of the turnout."

The fact that it was, is emblematic of a larger problem that we at OUR TIME are committed to fighting. This isn’t the only important discussion where people our age are left out – it’s just one of many.

Visit us on Facebook to tell us what you think about gay marriage and marijuana. If we match CNN’s 824 respondents, we’ll let them know what the results would have been, if they had asked us what we think.

To see the poll results, click here.

Similar questions surround other demographics in this poll. Like why is there an 8% margin of error on respondents between 35 and 49. That's pretty high. Where the margin of error on over 50 is only 4%. Caps of the poll are below.

An Anti-GLBT group, National Organization for Marriage, is holding a rally today in Rhode Island in support of traditional marriage. The rally is going to serve as a local platform for Maggie Gallagher, the national leader of the organization, to tell fellow bigots in Rhode Island why straight men and women should enjoy more rights than gay Americans.

The encouraging thing about this is what happened after Change.org got a hold of some information linking the Canadian coffee shop Tim Hortons to sponsorship of the event.

Last Sunday, Change.org published the story, and the feedback funneled to Tim Hortons was amazing, prompting the company to take action:

Folks, this is huge. In the past 17 hours, we've had more than 1,600 folks send letters to Tim Hortons, asking why a franchise in Rhode Island was sponsoring an anti-LGBT festival hosted by the National Organization for Marriage. Well, guess what? Tim Hortons has answered our emails, loud and clear. Here's the message that just came in from their company headquarters.

Tim Hortons responds to inquiries about Rhode Island event sponsorship

Recently, Tim Hortons was approached in Rhode Island to provide free coffee and products for a local event, as we do thousands of times a year across Canada and the United States.

For 45 years, Tim Hortons and its store owners have practiced a philosophy of giving back to the communities in which we operate. As a company, our primary focus is on helping children and supporting fundraising events for non-profit organizations and registered charities.

For this reason, Tim Hortons has not sponsored those representing religious groups, political affiliates or lobby groups.

It has come to our attention that the Rhode Island event organizer and purpose of the event fall outside of our sponsorship guidelines. As such, Tim Hortons can not provide support at the event.

Tim Hortons and its store owners have always welcomed all families and communities to its restaurants and will continue to do so. We apologize for any misunderstanding or inconvenience this may have caused.

Yet another example of the value and possibilities of internet-based activism. Congrats to Change.org and to those who wrote the company. Consider thanking Tim Hortons for standing up for equal rights by contacting them here.

Saturday night reading... check it out:

• Mother Jones and Campus Progress are looking for "campus hellraisers" to profile in the September-October 2009 issue of Mother Jones. Check it out (self-nominations are allowed).
• A "No on Gay Marriage" campaign is an epic fail with young people.
• Christian punk and heavy metal music is blurring the lines between young evangelicals and secularists.
• MTV has announced that TRL, having been canceled last November, will be replaced by the Alexa Chung Show. The new show reportedly will heavily emphasize Twitter through courting online reaction to its music videos and celebrity guests.
• Some good news and some bad news from a survey regarding youth (ages 13-29) attitudes toward the Green Movement:

  Good: Youth see the Green Movement as "responsible" and "cool," and they believe it to be a very worthy cause.
  
  Bad: Many youth believe the Green Movement to be too demanding on a personal level, too time-consuming and too inconvenient.

• Tens of thousands of young Americans will be educated and trained to deal with America's energy problem, thanks to President Obama.
• An article in BusinessWeek calls for more business schools to rein in Millennial entrepreneurs by focusing increasingly on problem-solving.
• Terry McAuliffe is seriously hemorrhaging some youth voters in Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial primary.

If you haven't heard of it by now... where have you been?! The Harry Potter Alliance got started in 2005 on MySpace and has grown into a larger and larger alliance tackling issue after issue bringing online involvement into offline actions.

Most recently their stance on California's Anti-Equality Amendment Proposition H8

The HP Forum includes anti-discrimination topics that speak of the inspiration for the advocacy.

"Dumbledore spoke against the Wizarding World’s discrimination of Half-bloods, Muggle borns, Muggles, Centaurs, Werewolves, Giants, and House Elves. How can we fight discrimination based on race, physical and mental ability, age, sexual orientation, economic status, ethnicity, and any thing else?"

With over 12,000 friends on MySpace and 50 chapters in 7 countries across the world, the HP Alliance works against real dark forces as members of Dumbledore's Army that advocates for justice.

Their specific causes include but are not limited to:

• Genocide, Poverty, AIDS, and Global Warming are ignored by our media and governments the way Voldemort's return is ignored by the Ministry and Daily Prophet.
• People are still discriminated against based on sexuality, race, class, religion, gender, ethnicity, and religion just as the Wizarding World continues to discriminate against Centaurs, Giants, House Elves, Half-Bloods, Muggle borns, Squibs, and Muggles
• Our governments continue to respond to terror by torturing prisoners (often without trial) just as Sirius Black was tortured by dementors with no trial
• A Muggle Mindset pervades over our culture-a mindset that values being "perfectly normal, thank you very much" over being interesting, original, loving, and creative

Since the release of the first Harry Potter book in 1997 the Alliance is targeting a demographic that is 100% millennial. A generation has come of age with the HP books in their lives advocating for good against evil. Tapping into this value and applying it to policy initiatives that matter to young people and showing how they can affect change within their communities is what I believe we all strive for in the youth movement. The HP Alliance does more than advocate against Prop H8 they are working within the culture to create lasting impacts on policies that we'll see as Millennials continue their takeover.

HPA did a lot this election including a huge Wizard Rock the Vote registration drive, but I have been wanting to write about them for a while as a special thanks for their continued advocacy against Prop H8. And I hope they'll stay involved in the new campaign to overturn Prop H8 begins.

I am a young amateur filmmaker from Canada who, after becoming increasingly frustrated with the political system and lack of action among his peers has made a short video aimed at George W Bush, John McCain and the conservative/religious right. The result is a hilarious but deadly serious message of anger and a call for mobilization.

Watch, laugh, think, maybe die a little inside, and then spread the message.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw88vPtMR40

Saturday evening reading:

• As we're moving closer and closer to Election Day -- one month from today! -- make sure to go over to the website for the November Fifth Coalition. Here is an excerpt from the front page of their site that explains their objectives:
  

  The November 5th Coalition is an all-partisan alliance committed to civic partnerships that address our biggest challenges. The Coalition is named for the day after the election in 2008 when a new chapter of America's civic history begins. Wherever the people gather they should be able to ask candidates “November 5th questions” about how they plan to tap the talents of the whole society, instead of posing as superheroes who will solve our problems for us. We will also develop leadership networks and civic policies that can serve as resources for a new administration. We encourage our fellow citizens to join with us in calling on candidates to rise above excessively divisive partisanship and to promote the common good.

• The Personal Democracy Forum has the top five reasons you won't be able to vote.
• Gizmodo takes you on a tour of the new Obama iPhone application. Very impressive! You can download it here.
• More scare tactics from the Republicans, this time aimed at Montana voters. Alternet has the details.
• Young Nevadans are overwhelmingly registering as Democrats:
  

  In the 18 to 24 age group, for example, Democrats have 54,192 registered voters compared with 31,405 Republicans, or 45 percent of the total registered voters for Democrats versus 26 percent for Republicans. That's a 19 percentage point difference.

• More youth attempting to be politically engaged. More youth being told not to. This time in Texas.
• Prop 8, the evangelical-led effort to amend California's constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, has gradually grown less and less popular; this Washington Post article explains that young voters are the main reason for the decline in popularity.

So I'm sure you heard. The good state of California is now performing same-sex marriages, after the state's Supreme Court struck down a state ban in May.

Well, I'm happy to report back to those around the world who might have been concerned about us here in California: So far as i can tell -- contrary to the dire predictions we may have heard -- the earth has not yet opened up and swallowed the whole state into a pit of eternal hellfire. Which is great, because honestly I'm not that into hellfire. Hellfire seems totally uncool.

In fact, as I look around, what strikes me the most is that the whole thing seems so.... so..... so normal.

Here's what appears to have been happening, and hold onto your hats while I say this.... It appears that couples who love each other -- people who have shared lives, families, and homes for years -- are now officially getting married.

Wild, I know.

I'm not sure exactly what I would have expected. Some sort of crazed marriage bonanza? A massive gay marriage stampede through the streets? Something else with the word bonanza in it?

Nope, not really. Pretty much it's just people who are happy to get the chance to say 'they do' to the one they love, and be recognized just like everyone else for it, with peace and dignity.

It makes me proud to be a Californian.

Maybe what gay marriage opponents have been missing for the last several years was a strong dose of who-the-hell-cares. You know what I mean? Relax, friends. Unclench. Look around. The world is still standing. More people who love each other are married. Sounds pretty good if you ask me.

Sure, it's possible that some coalition of concerned party poopers will stir up enough fear and ugliness to pass this constitutional amendment in November and shut down the festivities. (And certainly, we all need to step up and work against that. Definitely not into party poopers. Party poopers are way uncool.)

But I'll tell you what gives me a sense of peace about this issue.

It's inevitable. Like it or not, our country's attitudes are changing. It's unstoppable, and it's happening. And everyone, on all sides of the debate, knows it.

Just take a look at this. Right after the Supreme Court decision, a new Field Poll showed that for the first time since they started measuring back in the 70's, a majority of Californians now agree that "gay people have the right to marry" (51 to 42 percent.) And for voters under 30, the percent in support jumps to 68%. That's a blowout. Go us.

So yes, they might pass an amendment in california to outlaw same-sex marriage for a while. Sure, other states might go all reactionary and furrow their brows and bristle out their mustaches (yes, states can have mustaches, why not.) True, we could be in for a battery of reactionary laws and amendments and hyperventilating hand-wringing from the lock-your-doors brigade.

But progress will continue to steadily, inevitably, irreversibly march on. Those amendments will be overturned, laws will be fixed, and bristled mustaches will be soothed. And a few decades from now, we'll look back and wonder... what took us so damn long? And our kids will incredulously ask us how anyone thought such overt discrimination against our friends and neighbors was ever acceptable.

And one day, we will get to look back and tell our own stories about this time -- this time right now -- when we were truly proud to live in the state of California.

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Sam Dorman is the Managing Director of the League of Young Voters