EDITORIAL
The election of Barack Obama had an unanticipated side effect in California last Tuesday. Black voters turned out in droves and showed overwhelming support for Obama. While in the voting booth, they also displayed their opinions concerning a ban on gay marriage. While the White and Hispanic vote were fairly divided evenly regarding the state constitutional ban, the huge block of Black voters that turned out, heavily supported it by an estimated 70-75 percent. The irony in that is that the gays that also turned out in droves to support Obama were figuratively “kicked in the balls,” by the very people they’d voted support for, for decades in one Afro-American civil rights initiative after another.
As a gathering storm of resentment builds between blacks and gays over this perceived betrayal, so could trouble in California on several fronts. Gays in general have no children or spouses to support, which means a huge block of hundreds of millions of their disposable and mostly professional income is pumped into California’s economy every year in terms of purchases of homes, cars and personal and business income taxes.
Because the state is famously (or infamously as the case may be) known as gay-friendly, it is also known as the number one gay tourist destination, pumping even more millions of tourist dollars into the state’s economy annually. As gay community leaders gather to plan their next move, many are considering leaving California for the East coast, or even Canada where gay civil rights and marriage are legal and considered “matter of fact.”
There is also the matter of the Mormon Church pumping support for the anti-gay ban in the form of in excess of $20 million, both from the church itself and its out of state members. The resulting recent large protest marches in front of several of the LDS California headquarters have turned into near riots.
As a growing racial resentment builds between gays and their black former-allies, the only losers in this conflict may be the State of California and its powerful Democratic Party, in terms of political contributions, lost tourist revenues and income taxes. More and more gay professionals are talking about punishing their former safe haven by moving their culture and their businesses away to more friendly locations.
That could spell disaster for California economically and politically, to the point of it no longer being a forgone conclusion that the state would automatically fall into the Democrat’s column during national and presidential elections.
As a gathering storm of resentment builds between blacks and gays over this perceived betrayal, so could trouble in California on several fronts. Gays in general have no children or spouses to support, which means a huge block of hundreds of millions of their disposable and mostly professional income is pumped into California’s economy every year in terms of purchases of homes, cars and personal and business income taxes.
Because the state is famously (or infamously as the case may be) known as gay-friendly, it is also known as the number one gay tourist destination, pumping even more millions of tourist dollars into the state’s economy annually. As gay community leaders gather to plan their next move, many are considering leaving California for the East coast, or even Canada where gay civil rights and marriage are legal and considered “matter of fact.”
There is also the matter of the Mormon Church pumping support for the anti-gay ban in the form of in excess of $20 million, both from the church itself and its out of state members. The resulting recent large protest marches in front of several of the LDS California headquarters have turned into near riots.
As a growing racial resentment builds between gays and their black former-allies, the only losers in this conflict may be the State of California and its powerful Democratic Party, in terms of political contributions, lost tourist revenues and income taxes. More and more gay professionals are talking about punishing their former safe haven by moving their culture and their businesses away to more friendly locations.
That could spell disaster for California economically and politically, to the point of it no longer being a forgone conclusion that the state would automatically fall into the Democrat’s column during national and presidential elections.
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©-2008 by Jet Gardner/Blogcritics.org
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