One of my earlier observations has dropped out of the conversation: the pro-marriage effort is an inter-faith, multi-racial coalition. If you think of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition, he was trying to emphasize the ethnic diversity of his followers. We supporters of Prop 8 can make the same claim: we had the overwhelming support of African Americans and Hispanics as well as traditional believers from all the major religious groups.
This was the point I made to a group of citizens at a church meeting in Northern California the evening of the Prop 8 trial. This was a meeting of people concerned about some of the activities and decisions of their local school board. When I looked out into the audience, I saw Hispanics and Asians and Anglos gathered at an African American church to take responsibility for what was happening in their community. I pointed out that we were the largest grassroots effort in history. We had over 70,000 individual donors and 100,000 volunteers. When we went to file our donor reports with the CA Secretary of State, our report crashed their computer! My new friends in Northern California appreciated the reminder that the Prop 8 coalition was and continues to be a winning coalition.
I think a lot of the same sex marriage advocates are Leftists who resent the fact that they can no longer count on the Rainbow Coalition that has worked well for them in the past. You might have better luck if you actually listened to them, instead of finding reasons to dismiss them and their views.
Just a thought.