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Aug 11, 2010
A recent analysis of California’s Proposition 8 campaign turns the conventional wisdom about that 2008 electoral disaster on its head. Detailed and comprehensive, the report contains valuable insights for equality activists in Wisconsin and elsewhere in their upcoming battles at the ballot box.
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Mentoring Project looked at 10,000 pages of unreleased data from the campaign that overturned same-sex marriage in the Golden Gate state. Perhaps the most startling finding was that the margin of loss was much wider than reported – about one million votes. It turned out that a great many people who voted “no” on the referendum mistakenly believed they were voting against same-sex marriage, not for it.
Another significant revelation was that African-American voters were not responsible for the surprising outcome, as was commonly reported. In fact, the election turned after parents of school-age kids – many of them white Democrats – switched their votes from “no” to “yes” in response to TV ads falsely claiming that teachers would be forced to instruct children about gay and lesbian relationships if same-sex marriage remained legal.
“Mom! Guess what I learned in school today!” the commercials began.
Although the same strategy led to the Christian right’s victory in Maine, the organizers of No on 8 seemed unprepared for it. According to the report, the No on 8 campaign lost largely because of its failure to respond quickly and effectively to these false, homophobic commercials. Leaders of our future campaigns should not only be prepared for this sort of bogus attack but preempt it with ongoing public education campaigns – beginning now.
The authors of the report also found that No on 8 suffered from an attempt to “de-gay” the campaign. This led to inconsistency and tentativeness in messaging, among other problems. The report found that the only two No on 8 ads that had a positive impact on the electorate actually used the word “gay.”
The report also details many of the things that “No on 8” got right, including fundraising, mobilizing 51,000 grassroots volunteers and operating an effective website. There is much to be learned from the campaign’s success as well as its failure.
View the full report at http://prop8report.lgbtmentoring.org/read-the-report/executive-summary#_Toc268001402.
