tagged w/ Legalize Same-Sex Marriage
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http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/02/01/us/BUSH/BUSH-articleInline.jpg
The New York Times
January 31, 2011
Bush Child, in a Break, Endorses Gay Marriage
By MICHAEL BARBARO
The Bush dynasty is no stranger to generational conflict: father and son differed over deposing Saddam Hussein, raising taxes and the role of the United Nations.
Now it is father and daughter who find themselves at odds over a weighty issue.
Barbara Bush, one of the twin daughters of George W. Bush, will endorse same-sex marriage on Tuesday, publicly breaking ranks with a father who, as president, pushed for a constitutional amendment banning such unions.
Ms. Bush, 29, has taped a video calling on New York to legalize gay marriage. A bill to do that was defeated in the state in 2009. She describes the issue as a matter of conscience and equality.
“I am Barbara Bush, and I am a New Yorker for marriage equality,” she says in the brief message, sponsored by an advocacy group. “New York is about fairness and equality. And everyone should have the right to marry the person that they love.”
The video ends with Ms. Bush, who lives in Manhattan, imploring the state’s residents to “join us.”
Ms. Bush is the latest child of a prominent Republican leader to embrace same-sex marriage, long considered anathema to the conservative movement. Gay rights advocates have been quick to seize on the generational split as evidence that the acceptance of same-sex marriage is blind to party affiliation and family values.
Meghan McCain, the daughter of John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, has become an outspoken supporter of same-sex marriage, despite her father’s opposition to it. And Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, has forcefully backed it as well — and is widely credited with helping to persuade her father to do the same.
In the case of Mr. McCain, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush, it is not just their children who have supported it. So, to varying degrees, have their wives. Laura Bush, in a television interview in May, said, “When couples are committed to each other and love each other” they should have “the same sort of rights that everyone has.”
Ms. McCain, a blogger and author, has said it is unhealthy for members of political families to paper over disagreements on issues of social justice merely to project an image of harmony. “Wives and children should be able to speak their piece,” she said in a television interview last year. “I think it shows healthy dynamics within a family. We shouldn’t all think one way, and think one thing.”
Barbara Bush, who started a nonprofit group focused on global health, rarely speaks out on American political issues, making her foray into the same-sex marriage debate so striking. But for years, those close to her say, she has surrounded herself with gay friends — at Yale, where she was an undergraduate, and in New York City, where she worked in the design world.
C. Brian Smith, a friend from college who is gay, recalled that the Yale Ms. Bush inhabited was filled with openly gay students and unbothered by questions about sexuality. “She had that mind-set,” he said. “She was loved by the gay community at Yale.”
Members of the Bush family seemed uneager to discuss her entry into the marriage debate. Ms. Bush declined an interview request. A spokesman for Mr. Bush said he had no comment. Her sister, Jenna Bush Hager, a correspondent for “Today,” has not publicly discussed the topic.
The Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights group that made the video, plans to show it Saturday at an annual gala in New York City. Advocates said it would show elected officials and voters that, in many cases, young people are not following in their parents’ ideological footsteps.
“No matter what party they belong to, young Americans believe in basic fairness and equality,” said Brian Ellner, who is overseeing the Human Rights Campaign’s bid to legalize same-sex marriage in New York.http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/02/01/us/BUSH/BUSH-articleInline.jpg
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Less than half are against same-sex marriage, poll finds
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/06/poll.gay.marriage/index.html?hpt=T1
Fewer than half of Americans oppose gay marriage, poll finds
By the CNN Wire Staff
October 6, 2010 9:56 p.m. EDT
For the first time since Pew started asking about it, fewer than half of those polled said they oppose gay marriage.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* For the first time in Pew poll's history, fewer than half oppose legal gay marriage
* More Americans continue to oppose gay marriage than support it
* Poll finds significant shifts in public opinion on the issue since last year
(CNN) -- Fewer than half of Americans oppose legalized same-sex marriage, according to a new poll on the issue released Wednesday, with significant shifts in public opinion on the issue just since last year.
More Americans continue to oppose gay marriage than support it, according to the poll, which was released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. But for the first time since Pew starting asking about same sex marriage 15 years ago, fewer than half of those polled said they oppose legalizing the institution.
The poll revealed other firsts. For the first time since Pew began asking about the issue, more white mainline Protestants and white Catholics favor gay marriage than oppose it.
"The shift in opinion on same-sex marriage has been broad-based, occurring across many demographic, political and religious groups," Pew's polling analysis said.
The analysis noted that political independents, who were opposed to gay marriage by a wide margin just last year, are now divided on the issue.
The poll -- which combines two surveys conducted from July to September of this year -- found that 42 percent of Americans favor same-sex marriage, while 48 percent oppose it.
In polls conducted in 2009, 37 percent favored gay marriage while 54 percent were opposed, Pew said.
"The public continues to be far more supportive of gays and lesbians serving openly in the military than of allowing legal same-sex marriages," the Pew's polling analysis notes.
Sixty percent of Americans favor allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military, while 30 percent oppose it. Support for gays serving openly in the military has remained fairly stable over the last five years, Pew said.
On gay marriage, the new poll found significant differences of opinions along age, racial and partisan lines.
Americans in the so-called Millennial Generation -- those born after the 1980s -- favor gay marriage by 53 percent to 39 percent, the poll found. Among those born between 1928 and 1945, just 29 percent favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, while 59 percent are opposed.
Among Democrats, 53 percent support legalized gay marriage, while just 24 percent of Republicans do.
And while whites are evenly divided over gay marriage, the poll found, blacks oppose legalizing the institution by a wide margin.Less than half are against same-sex marriage, poll finds... more
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Gay marriage has become one of the biggest domestic issues of the last few elections. Do you support it?Gay marriage has become one of the biggest domestic issues of the last few elections.... more
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