The polls are cold and closed, the votes are all tallied, and the verdict is in and undisputable. 2,254,565 Texans voted on Proposition 2, to deny same sex marriages any legal status, and in the end, 1,718,513 Texans chose to deny same sex couples the same rights that heterosexuals enjoy. 76.22% of Texans who voted saw fit to not only deny the WORD marriage to homosexual couples, but to remove the possibility of those couples to create arrangements that would allow them to make important decisions and share the same important benefits that straight couples can with impunity.
There's another important number, however, that highlights our failure to protect gay rights in Texas. That number is 17.93.
More below the fold...
What significance does the number 17.93 have? I'll give you a moment to guess.....
Give up yet?
17.93 is the percentage of registered voters in Texas who showed up to vote for the propositions. 17.93%. Less than 20% of registered voters felt the need to turn out for this important vote...and little over 4% of registered voters voted to leave the possibility of same sex rights on the table.
FOUR PERCENT. Read that number carefully. A vote that decided the FUTURE of gay rights in our state, and we were able to mobilize only FOUR PERCENT on the voting populace to support this incredibly important cause? According to NAES, 30% of Texans identify Democrat, and 23% identify Independent. Among that 53%, we failed to find even 10% of voters who thought it was important enough to protect gay rights?
It is obvious that the methods we are using to "get out the vote" are not working. When it is a strain to get 50% of your party to vote on something as important as this, it's embarrassing. It is embarrassing that in our country, which we like to consider the birthplace of modern democracy, we can manage to motivate only 13% of our own party to vote. Our poll rates are some of the most abyssmal in the world, even among other countries where voting is not mandatory.
This is not a "peripheral" issue. This is not a side agenda, or a bond ballot. This is a vote that requires the kind of support and effort that even a presidential election might elicit. We failed to treat it with the force and authority that it required, and it is gay rights that have suffered because of it. And they will not be alone.
The truth is, we MUST fix this. We must work constantly and diligently, before, after, and between elections, to be certain that we are prepared to vote, that we are prepared to plaster the polls with progressive opinion, and we are ready to protect the rights of all groups. If we are to ensure that our agenda, which I believe is a GOOD agenda, inclusive and supportive of true values, is realized, then we must be ready to produce turnout that impresses, to push what people think is possible in American voting. We must be able to catch the republicans off-guard, and force them on the defensive by being able to produce significant voter turnout for the issues that matter to us most.
It should have started with this one, but it didn't. We cannot let this sort of thing pass unchallenged again.