The Suquamish Tribe approves Gay Marriages

This is fantastic news this morning:

The Tribal Council voted unanimously Monday to change the law, the Kitsap Sun, of Bremerton, Wash., reported.


Heather Purser, 28, has been spearheading the campaign to get the tribe to change its law since she came out as a lesbian about four years ago, the newspaper said.


"I wanted to feel accepted," she said. "The Suquamish Tribe has always been my home."


She spoke in March at the tribe's general council meeting, asking for recognition for same-sex couples and requesting a vote of the entire audience.


Purser was surprised by the amount of support she received.


"I was expecting a major fight. I didn't think anyone would support me," she said, adding that she did not hear any voiced dissent.


"Really it was the Suquamish people who approved this," she said. "The general council is really what made everything happen."

Congrats to all of Heather's hard work.

source

53% of Americans support Same-Sex Marriage

A Gallup Poll shows a clear majority of Americans supports gay marriage.

According to LA Times:

A new Gallup Poll released this morning finds that this month 53% of Americans say same-sex marriage should be recognized in law as equally valid with traditional male-female marriages.


The spurt in support of 9% in the past 12 months was the largest registered since Gallup first tracked the topic in 1996. Back then, only 27% supported same-sex marriage and two-thirds opposed.


Support for same-sex marriages had hovered in the low 40's since about 2004, until the latest figures, showing 59% of independents and 69% of Democrats now support the idea, while 28% of Republicans do. The GOP figure was unchanged from 2010.


The new statistics also show a predictable generational cleavage, with support for gay marriage highest among the youngest (70% among those 18 to 34), declining to 53% among those 35 to 54 years old and weakest among those over 55 (39%) -- although even that segment's support increased six points in the past 12 months.


Support for gay marriage is higher among Catholics than Protestants, among the unmarried and among those who attend church less frequently.

Times are changing for real! I guess that's why folks think the rapture is tomorrow.

Poll: D.C. majority backs Gay marriage.

Interesting results in D.C. According to a Washington Post poll from last month, most residences support gay marriage and there's only a slim majority in the Black community that opposes it.

Here's more:

Nearly six in 10 D.C. residents, including 83 percent of whites, favor making it legal for gay couples to marry.

The broad support for same-sex marriage in the District's white community cuts across cultural lines that divide opinions on the matter nationally. Regular white churchgoers nationwide generally oppose same-sex marriage, but two-thirds of whites in the District who attend services monthly or more often support same-sex marriage.

African Americans tilt against same-sex marriage. Thirty-seven percent of black residents back legal same-sex marriage. A slim majority opposes it, and the bulk of opponents say they feel that way strongly.

But some divisions are evident in the local black community on this issue, with sharp divides by church attendance and education.

One in five African Americans who attend church services weekly favor same-sex marriage, and support rises to 47 percent among those who attend less often. A narrow majority of black college graduates supports gay marriage, compared with about a third of African Americans with less formal education.

So education is a key factor here. Also, as usual, religion plays a huge part as well. But at least the numbers are not as high as Harry Jackson claimed. It looks like more Blacks are coming around.

source