# Gay marriage opponents, listen up: I've got a secret to tell you **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 6, 2008, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-marriage-opponents-listen-up-ive-got-a-secret-to-tell-you/471496 "2008-11-06T19:08:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 672
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-marriage-opponents-listen-up-ive-got-a-secret-to-tell-you/471496/672 "2008-11-22T19:21:54Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Despite all that, could I turn the attention of the collective Pitizenry to the subject of those who sincerely believe that their understanding of God’s will gives them license to vote away the rights of others? ( **Magellan** , listen up to anyone discussing them; it might give you a sense of how you’re coming across to others – if you even care.) As several have noted, it’s not the gays’ fight any more – it’s **everybody** ’s fight. How do we effectively combat it? What to do with the mass of citizens who believe in God but not necessarily in the batshit-insane god of fundamentalism? How win their hearts? Wouldn’t you deal with them the same way you would on the abortion issue? There are many Christians on the pro-choice side of the issue despite the insistence from some religious groups that the Bible can only support the pro-life side. Why would this be different? I’m not convinced that this issue is solely split on religious grounds. It’s hard to deny that the base support comes from religious interests, but the vote was so close that some people who aren’t religious but supported the proposition could have made the difference. Something that **Miller** posted to **magellan01** in the [“Marriage is between a man and a woman. Period.”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=482914) thread struck me: > [@"Marriage is between a man and a woman. Period."](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-is-between-a-man-and-a-woman-period/463188/175): > > I mean, what part of “We don’t think that separate but equal would, in fact, be equal,” can’t you fathom? Yes, I know that _you_ think it’s possible. But you haven’t really made much of a case for that position. You say that you’d support that sort of situation, but you’re just one guy, and God love ya, but you’re not exactly representative of the mainstream. You’re a conservative atheist who’s pro-choice, and pro-gay rights, but anti-SSM. That’s not exactly a gigantic voting block. While I agree that conservative atheists who are pro-choice and pro-gay rights might not be the majority voting block, I also wonder how many people fit under this category. Looking at the voting from Santa Clara county, not a very religious place in my experience, there were 290, 027 (44.2%) people voting yes and 365,535 (55.8%) people voting no on 8. While I couldn’t find any statistics, I don’t believe there are 44% of the population that is religious and certainly not fundamentalist religious. In the same election, there were 460,128 (69.6%) people voting for Obama and 189,299 (28.7%) people voting for McCain from the same county. It seems odd to me that with 70% of people voting democratic in the Presidential election, there would be only 56% of people voting no on 8. Could some, not insignificant number of those people, who voted yes on 8 in this election have been atheists who are pro-choice and pro-gay rights? Does anyone have other explanations for this seeming discrepancy? ETA: [Prop. 8 voting results by county](http://vote.sos.ca.gov/Returns/props/map190000000008.htm) --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-marriage-opponents-listen-up-ive-got-a-secret-to-tell-you/471496)._