Minority Voters Could Support California Gay Marriage Ban
Posted by andrea78958 on October 28, 2008
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
Oct. 28, 2008
In 2003, Rev. Roland Stringfellow, who had served as pastor of a fundamentalist Baptist church in Indiana for a decade, resigned quietly rather than face his African-American congregation and explain that he was a gay black man.
Proposiion 8 and California voters
Cultural observers say newly registered African Americans and Latino voters who are drawn to presidential candidate Barack Obama could help enact Proposition 8, a ban on gay marriage.
(ABC News Photo Illustration)
“At that time, the best thing was not to proclaim it,” Stringfellow told ABCNews.com. “When it comes down to being a black man, oftentimes we are forced to make a decision, ‘Is my community or family more important than my own well-being?’ We choose to live in silence and play the role, living on the down low.”
Today, 39, and living in San Francisco, Stringfellow belongs to a more socially liberal church and hopes to be married one day. He is openly fighting California’s Proposition 8 – a ballot initiative to outlaw recently legalized gay marriage – and cultural prejudices in his own community.
But Stringfellow’s views may not be typical of most minorities in California, who could hold the key to the future of gay marriage in the most populous state in the nation. If passed, it will amend the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman.
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In this historic presidential election year, political observers say high voter turnout for Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama — who is predicted to draw record numbers of church-going African Americans and Latinos — may spell the demise of legal gay marriage in California.
read more here:
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=6124148&page=1
