The California
secretary of state has changed language in the ballot
initiative that would ban same-sex marriage in California.
The California
secretary of state has changed language in the ballot
initiative that would ban same-sex marriage in California.
Proposition 8
would overturn the state's supreme court ruling that it is
unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples in California the
right to marry. The original wording of the
November ballot initiative read, "[Proposition 8]
amends the California Constitution to provide that
only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or
recognized in California."
The new language
says that the initiative "Changes California
Constitution to eliminate right of same-sex couples to
marry." It further explains that banning gay marriage
could prevent the state from gaining tens of millions
of dollars in potential sales tax revenue.
Some activists
think the language change, which spells out the removal of
the right for same-sex couples to marry, could help to
defeat the measure, according to Waymon Hudson at
Bilerico.com. He notes that some polls have shown that
changing the language to denote the removal of rights
can add up to 10 percentage points to the "no" votes.
A Field Poll from
July 18 shows that 51% of Californians are against the
ban, 42% favor it, and 7% are undecided. Additionally, 63%
of Democrats said they would vote against the ban,
while 68% of Republicans said they would vote for it.
The poll was the second consecutive study to show that
a majority of Californians -- a very slim majority -- would
vote for marriage equality. Those additional 10 points
could only help. (The Advocate)
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