How the Votes on Same-Sex Marriage Stack Up

The current legality of same-sex marriage, as defined by 5 Supreme Court Justices, has brought to a head the discussion of marriage, equality, and non-traditional societal behavior. President Obama has stated, as with Obamacare, that this is now the law of the land, “Get used to it!” 

(Although he never told the homo-sympathetic crowd before the ruling, that marriage was legally only between a man and a woman as defined in the Defence of Marriage Act so they should “Get used to it!”, but I digress.)

There have only been 2 States, Oregon and Massachusetts, where the popular vote passed same-sex marriage. The other states who passed bans had 1-3 Federal Judges overturn the vote of the people, who had already rejected it soundly. 

Public opinion polls project that a majority of the people in the US support same-sex marriages, but if you count the votes cast so far, it paints a different picture. 

(Remember that polls are taken from a small demographic group, often less than 1000 people. The area you choose to poll your voters can dramatically shift the outcome of the poll. A poll of 1000 people in downtown Salt Lake City, predominately Democrat, and 1000 people in Utah County, predominately Republican, will be diametrically opposed.)

The number of times State Legislatures voted to prohibit same-sex marriage, (some States have voted more than once on the subject.)

• For a ban – 52 times
• Against a ban – 17 times

 Popular vote to support a Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage:

• Banning same-sex marriages – 32 times
• Bans to same-sex overturned by Federal Courts - 18
• Not to support ban same-sex marriages – 2 times
• Percentage of voters nationwide banning same-sex marriage – 66.57%
• Percentage of voters nationwide supporting same-sex marriages – 33.43%

Since this is still a Judicial ruling interpreting the Constitution and not actually part of the Constitution, I expect to see multitudes of court and legislative challenges defining and re-defining this decision. Who knows where it will eventually end up. 

Voting statistics from Wikipedia, 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_legislation_in_the_United_States