How Will Gay Marriage Impact Ohio In 2008?
- Filed under: Uncategorized
- Date: Jul 1,2008


The recent legalization of same-sex marriage in California and New York has brought the dormant issue back to the election year limelight. Former Republican Presidential Candidate and Conservative Christan Leader Gary Bauer had an interesting piece on the Politico's website yesterday titled "Can gay marriage save the GOP again?" Ohio is the state that Bauer references as the place where the issue could have the most impact this year because of the success of the issue in 2004:
"In Ohio[2004], for instance, a huge marriage amendment campaign registered 54,500 new voters, and thousands more Ohioans who were registered but rarely voted cast their votes for the marriage amendment. On the strength of the marriage initiative, Bush won in the battleground state, as did 13 of the 17 Republican candidates running for Congress there." - Gary Bauer
Bauer makes more good points in his article and has additional data. The issue of gay marriage did help to deliver the State of Ohio for George W. Bush and the issue is still peculating nationally. Time Magazine released a poll this week on the topic of Gay marriage: "Should gay and lesbian couples be allowed to marry, giving them full legal rights of married couples, or not?" The results: 42% should, 51% should not. If John McCain is looking to awaken and engage Christian Conservatives like Gary Bauer, then gay marriage may be the way to do it.
Part of the reason why I think this issue has been so effective is because Democrats and gay rights organizations generally do a bad job organizing and responding to this issue. Most voters only hear the opposing arguments to gay marriage. However, that may not be the case this cycle. One group helping to educate voters about the issue of gay marriage is Equality Ohio. You may notice that the top issue on the website is a statement discouraging gay couples from suing in states, like Ohio, where gay marriage is illegal. That is good advice during an election year.
In an interesting twist, Stephanie McCloud is one of the names being floated to run for Ohio Attorney General this cycle. Stephanie's dad Phil Burress helped lead the campaign for the amendment to ban gay marriage in Ohio. Putting Stephanie McCloud on the ballot as an A.G. candidate may help jump start Gary Bauer's plan to energize conservatives in Ohio.








Hoy en día, un grupo de bloggers de Ohio es la publicación en una lengua extranjera como una sutil protesta a Ohio HB 477. El proyecto de ley requeriría "la utilización del idioma Inglés de Estado y de entidades del gobierno local en actos oficiales y los procedimientos". La protesta fue organizada por la Ohio blog escribe igual que habla, que tiene una lista completa de otros blogs que participan en Ohio. El propósito de todos estos sitios de blogs en un idioma diferente es mostrar cómo los lectores de exclusión HB 477. Me han elegido para publicar en español el mío porque es el idioma que la mayoría de estos proyectos de ley están destinados a meta.