Gays as a voting bloc

[jaichind]

Well, Gays and I assume the Gay voter are on whole younger and have lower income than the average voter.  We know that young and lower income (both of course are correlated) tends to vote D.  So it is not even clear that Gays vote as a block or vote their demographic profile.  And there does not seem to enough data be be sure either way.  Speaking of gays and lower income, there is a PEW research report that says that LGBT have lower income than average which is contrary to popular impressions.  My response to that looking over the data is that once one factors in age LGBT income gap with with rest of the population is tiny.  Of course one can argue that LGBT tend to be concentrated in cities where income and cost of living is higher so in terms of living standards LGBT tends to be worse off than average after factoring in for age.  Of course if that is true that is another reason LGBT vote Democratic regardless what the GOP position on LGBT social issues like SSM. 

[jaichind]

More gays are coming out, but other than gay marriage the gays I know are at least as conservative as I am. I know a gay person who hates the idea of gay marriage because it would make him feel like a straight person. Basically he wants gays to have a culture of their own and he believes those who want gay marriage simply push for it due to leftist .political reasons which only gives gays a bad name. Part of me wants to legalize gay marriage just to take the issue off of the table. Of course knowing Democrats they'll just push for something more even if gays are perfectly happy. It's quite obvious that most people at gay marriage rallies aren't even gay, but liberals trying to rally more to their cause just like they did in the 60's. Do they actually care about gays though is my question? Or are they being used as political propaganda? I say let's legalize it and take the issue off of the table so that Democrats can't whine about it.

I view this in a very similar vien.  I am for SSM mostly because I do not think government should be involved in defining what marriage should be.  By the same logic I am for legalizing polygamy.  I think many people are for SSM for the same reasons and I support their positions and motivations.  I think others are for SSM as part of an agenda to make the LGBT lifestype mainstream at the cultural level by using the government to almost bless this lifestyle.  I am opposed to this agenda as this is a cultural issue and the government should not be forced to take sides.  For me the best way to beat this back is to announce that government will not be in the business of deciding what is marriage and what is not.  I think social conservatives if they thought about would agree with this approach.  Their main beef with SSM, if one takes a step back, is really with the growth of the LGBT lifestyle and that it is being legitimized.  They were hoping to use the government to stop this but perhaps they can see now that time is not on their side.  The best way to accomplish their goals is to take the governement as weapon out of everyone's hands and make it a non-issue from a policy point of view.  Then the cultural battle over the LGBT lifestyle can take place where it should be, inside peoples homes and social circles where people can choose who they want to associate with.  And if someone despises the LGBT lifestyle he or she should, without government intervention, be free not to associate with someone from that lifestyle.