In my gut, I knew that it was going to be bad news. We here in the SF Bay area live in a bubble and every person I work/associate/teach/deal with was clearly anti-8. But in my mind, I remember the interaction I had with my Dad's golfing buddy, as well as my Philippina barber and how intinctively conservative they were. At least I know that my Dad's golfing friend came out and said he would never vote for a black man. My barber was a huge Clinton supporter. How does this correlate to the Prop. 8 vote here in California? More than anything else, it's a generational thing. Yes, the Mormon church brought in a ton of money to get it passed, but they didn't do the actual voting. It comes down to people like my Dad's friend who hasn't had any exposure to the gay community. My guess is that for him, never having really thought through the implications of what the vote was about, would simply read the premise of the initiative and, like most people who aren't exposed to a new idea, would simply vote to keep the status quo. I imagine that the simplified thinking process would go something like this.
1st Reads proposition as "Define marriage as Man and Woman"
2nd Thinks to self "Isn't that just what we have now?"
3rd Thinks "Of course marriage is for a man or woman, it's what we have now"
4th Concludes "Let's just save what's what we have"
It just doesn't occur to them that they are narrowing the defintion, they're just voting their own self interest, which doesn't affect them so there is no reason to think about it. If there was education of these people, such as my Dad's friend, some of them would STILL vote Yes on 8, but I bet many of them would change their mind. Jesus, does this mean I have to come out to my parent's friends? If I were to walk the talk, I should be wearing my rainbow flag shirt at the Chinese community holiday parties in Seattle this Christmas season.
Now, to conclude, I've posted a copy of the map of how the precincts here in the city of SF voted The typical breakdown in SF is an East/West one, with the Eastern, more "urbane" part of the city votes much more liberally than the "conservative" western half of the city. That theory holds somewhat here, as you'll see that area on the Western side just south of Golden Gate Park, is much more pro-8 than the rest of the city. That area is predominantly Chinese/Asian.
However, those are Chinese who more likely than not have been in the US for a decade or more. Notice the Chinatown area. Traditionally, that's the first landing spot for Chinese immigrants when they first land here. The study of voting found that those Chinese immigrants who have been here less than 10 years overwhelming voted for Prop 8. The most general conclusion about the voting trends on Prop 8 here in San Francisco is that precincts with the greater percentage of voters who were white, voted against 8.
So, I am sure eventually, gay marriage will become the law of the state of California as well as the United States. But I too, like everyone else out there, thinks that it comes down to education (in essence becoming more familiar to all) and the older generation slowly becoming a smaller and less influential sector of the electorate.
1st Reads proposition as "Define marriage as Man and Woman"
2nd Thinks to self "Isn't that just what we have now?"
3rd Thinks "Of course marriage is for a man or woman, it's what we have now"
4th Concludes "Let's just save what's what we have"
It just doesn't occur to them that they are narrowing the defintion, they're just voting their own self interest, which doesn't affect them so there is no reason to think about it. If there was education of these people, such as my Dad's friend, some of them would STILL vote Yes on 8, but I bet many of them would change their mind. Jesus, does this mean I have to come out to my parent's friends? If I were to walk the talk, I should be wearing my rainbow flag shirt at the Chinese community holiday parties in Seattle this Christmas season.
Now, to conclude, I've posted a copy of the map of how the precincts here in the city of SF voted The typical breakdown in SF is an East/West one, with the Eastern, more "urbane" part of the city votes much more liberally than the "conservative" western half of the city. That theory holds somewhat here, as you'll see that area on the Western side just south of Golden Gate Park, is much more pro-8 than the rest of the city. That area is predominantly Chinese/Asian.
However, those are Chinese who more likely than not have been in the US for a decade or more. Notice the Chinatown area. Traditionally, that's the first landing spot for Chinese immigrants when they first land here. The study of voting found that those Chinese immigrants who have been here less than 10 years overwhelming voted for Prop 8. The most general conclusion about the voting trends on Prop 8 here in San Francisco is that precincts with the greater percentage of voters who were white, voted against 8.
So, I am sure eventually, gay marriage will become the law of the state of California as well as the United States. But I too, like everyone else out there, thinks that it comes down to education (in essence becoming more familiar to all) and the older generation slowly becoming a smaller and less influential sector of the electorate.