This morning as I sat down with my coffee and a donut, I tripped across a video by Janelle and Brian Gehling filmed as part of a project by the American Public Media's Public Insight Network and Minnesota Public Radio. The project asks Minnesotan's to answer the question:
What life experience will inform your vote on the marriage amendment?
The project is looking for MN voters from both sides of the issue to share their views and what shapes their decision. Janelle and Brian will be voting yes, for the amendment.
Right now there are 13 videos in the playlist. Of those 6 will be voting no, 2 are undecided and 5 will be voting yes. Given how averse the opponents of marriage equality are to going public with their views I'm guessing the producers are receiving far more people willing to share why they will be voting no versus those who plan to vote yes.
YouTube Playlist: MN Marriage Amendment
Producers Jeff Jones and Anna Weggel explain the project...
In November 2012, Minnesota voters will be asked to decide whether to amend the Minnesota Constitution to say that "only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage" in Minnesota.
Our names are Jeff Jones and Anna Weggel and we're producers with American Public Media's Public Insight Network and we want to start a civil and honest conversation around this issue. Our hunch is that voters are more influenced by their own experience and by the stories they hear from others than by the big-budget advertising that will soon start to dominate this issue. So we're asking for your story. Leave opinion and accusations at the door and just tell the real, personal experience that guides your thinking around this issue.
If your religious faith informs your perspective, we want to know it. If your family or friends have shaped your views, let us know. Whether you support the amendment or oppose it -- or maybe you're still struggling with a decision -- your real story can be part of the conversation voters deserve to have on this issue: one that is civil and honest.
Here are a few videos we've put together so far around this topic (click the "next" button to scroll through):
If you live in MN and would like to participate you can sign up here:
What life experience will inform your vote on the marriage amendment?
I love the idea of this project and allowing real people to tell their stories versus the out of state noise machine that will soon be setting up shop to overwhelm the Minnesota airwaves with their deceitful ad campaigns.
In this video Janelle and Brian Gehling explain why they will be voting for the amendment...
Dara and Tomme Beevas will be voting no...
In great news from yesterday which should help in all anti marriage equality initiatives and amendments, Pam Spaulding reports on her Pam's House Blend blog that 54% of North Carolinians oppose an amendment to the NC state constitution that would ban same-sex marriage.
Latest Elon poll: Majority of North Carolinians Oppose Anti-Gay Constitutional Amendment
A new Elon University Poll released today shows that a majority of North Carolinians oppose Amendment One, a constitutional amendment on the May 8, 2012, North Carolina primary ballot that bans relationship recognition and threatens protections for the state’s unmarried couples.
The nonpartisan poll revealed that 54.2% of North Carolinians surveyed either oppose or strongly oppose “an amendment to the constitution that would ban same-sex marriage.” Only 37.8% polled were in any way supportive of Amendment One. The poll also illustrates a dramatic increase in the category of “strong opposition” to this type of amendment from only one year ago, with 34% now voicing strong opposition versus 21.8% in February 2011.
If we can stop Amendment One in North Carolina then hopefully that momentum will carry into Minnesota and help shape the conversation there.