Advertisement

Results show where Prop. 2 failed

Chris Azzopardi

DETROIT – Triangle Foundation recently released the final Proposal 2 results, which break down votes by city and county and show that 48 Michigan municipalities and two counties voted against the ban on marriage equality.
"It is sad that only 48 municipalities rejected this discriminatory proposal, but we are hopeful that every day the numbers and the landscape looks better for GLBT families," said Sean Kosofsky, director of policy for Triangle Foundation, Michigan's leading civil rights organization for the GLBT community.
The only counties in Michigan that defeated the amendment were Washtenaw and Ingham. The cities of Ann Arbor and Huntington Woods, with 24 percent and 22 percent respectively, both had the least numbers of votes supporting the proposal. Kosofsky attributes this to high-education levels and low religiosity. Older, white church-going men tended to vote for the amendment.
"Where we find higher education levels, we find higher tolerance," he said.
Novi, among other cities, had total votes as low as 109, which Kosofsky attributes to a lack of campaigning in those areas.
"The campaign was largely [geared toward] metro Detroit. "Some places weren't really hit with campaign communication and a lot of voters were confused as to what they were voting for."
Chelsea, Clarkson and Mackinac Island City's defeat of Proposal 2 shocked Kosofsky.
"I was really surprised and pleased at how many folks voted no without being asked to," he said. "It just shows that Michigan votes are further along then we believe on marriage."
Kosofsky said Triangle Foundation would gain wisdom from these statistics.
"We have to imagine the campaign didn't reach people outside of metro Detroit and Lansing," he said.
Proposal 2, which defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman in the state's constitution, won by a margin of 59-41 percent in November 2004.
"Proposal 2 was one of the nastiest and most divisive measures Michigan has ever seen," Kosofsky said. "For the first time ever, Michigan voters put a definition of marriage in the Michigan Constitution, essentially locking gay and lesbian couples out of over 1,000 benefits, rights and responsibilities that heterosexual married couples enjoy."

Advertisement
Topics: News
Advertisement

From the Pride Source Marketplace

Go to the Marketplace
Directory default
Dexter Cabinet & Countertop has been serving Washtenaw County's Gay and Lesbian Community since…
Learn More
Directory default
A family owned and operated in fashionable Ferndale, MI and purveyor of Symmetrical all wheel drive…
Learn More
Advertisement