Prop 8 Was A Matter Of Ideology, Not Race

I wish this were to state the obvious. Sadly, this is not obvious to everyone. But it has now been confirmed in a study by Freedom To Marry.

The study is linked from the release, and I have not read the whole thing, but the basic conclusion was that the explanatory factors were party affiliation, ideological self-identification, church attendance, and age. The much-talked about high rate of black voters in support of Prop 8 washes out when controlling for these factors, mainly church attendance:

The study found that when religious attendance was factored out, however, there was no significant difference between African Americans and other groups.

In fact, says the release:

people of all races and ethnicities who worship at least once a week overwhelmingly supported Proposition 8, with support among white, Asian and Latino frequent churchgoers actually being greater than among African Americans.

(Emphasis supplied.)

At a minimum, one ought to conclude that this is more about the Christian community standing in the way of equality. But I think this is even more narrow than that — while I am not a believer, I know some religious folks who are firmly for full equality. So I say this is about the triumph of social conservatism within Christianity. That is a problem that probably can only be fixed from within.

h/t Harper Jean Tobin at Polymorphous Perversity.