Gay Marriage comes to Indiana?

[Mr. Illini]

Good to see the state to the east has moved on from this, at least for now. Approving this would have just solidified Midwesterners' perception that Indiana is backwards and the "south of the north."

No offense to the gentleman from NW Indiana.

[Mr. Illini]

Good to see the state to the east has moved on from this, at least for now. Approving this would have just solidified Midwesterners' perception that Indiana is backwards and the "south of the north."

No offense to the gentleman from NW Indiana.

It's the legislature that's the problem, not Hoosiers.

The general public ties on legalizing gay marriage (45%-45%), supports civil unions (55%), but opposes amending the Constitution to ban it by ever-increasing margins, from 47%-46% opposed in 2011, to 54%-38% opposing early 2013, to 58%-33% opposing late 2013.

Ban supporters hoped to get it on the ballot this year to take advantage of reduced turnout(as happend in NC in early 2012), but now that the earliest it can be voted on is 2016, when turnout will be huge and attitudes more permissive. And SCOTUS almost certainly will take up the issue again within the next few years, possibly rendering the point moot.

Certainly, although Indiana is generally more conservative than the rest of the Midwest, even accounting for conservative rural areas in the other states.

[Mr. Illini]

I'm selfish and wanted to see a referendum on it (to lose of course) because I wanted to study the map.

Awesome news, though! The map continues to fill in!

[Mr. Illini]

I'm selfish and wanted to see a referendum on it (to lose of course) because I wanted to study the map.

Awesome news, though! The map continues to fill in!

I too would have loved to participate in the defeat of the ban (both by voting and volunteering), but I guess I'll have to leave that to my imagination. For a map, I would assume it would have looked like Obama 2008, but with more counties voting it down.

I don't think Lake would have voted it down. When Maryland voted on it, its heavily Democratic and black county, Prince George's County, voted against equal marriage, although it was fairly narrow. I suspect that equality would have lost some of Obama's ground in NWI but gained in college counties, micro-city counties like in Marion and Anderson and Fort Wayne, and picked up some solid GOP suburban Indy counties north of the city.