Young conservatives launch Freedom to Marry campaign
Thursday, July 26, 2012 at 12:29PM 
Young conservatives launched the Freedom to Marry campaign. (Photo: Screen shot of Freedom to Marry website)At a recent kickoff event, the activist group Freedom to Marry launched Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry, a new initiative the group said will “highlight the broad and growing support for marriage across the ideological spectrum.”
Same-sex-marriage is an issue often used by politicians to either grab a vote or attack an opponent.
Debate on the issue crosses party lines, as evidenced by a revelation from the president of a political group based on women’s rights:
“A lot of the people that I have spoken to that are self-identified Democrats are completely and totally against gay marriage — they believe it’s a sin,” said Michelle Bernard, president of the Bernard Center for Women, Politics and Public Policy.
Thus it should come as no surprise that within the conservative youth movement, there’s a difference of opinion about same-sex-marriage. The same holds true for Republicans who, like Democrats, are divided on the issue.
A recent vote to ban gay marriage in North Carolina demonstrates the divide among Democrats who have laid claim to the majority of the black vote for decades. Blacks in North Carolina supported the ban to the tune of 61 percent. A Dem-leading pollster claimed those who were against it didn’t fully understand the language of the amendment, but that is a difficult argument to make because voters knew the amendment constituted a ban.
It is of course completely unlikely that black voters won’t choose the Democrat in 2012 based on a single issue. Democrats are assured that, just as they did in 2008, most blacks will vote for President Barack Obama. One Democrat pollster reflected the confidence his party has in keeping the black vote locked up by assuring, “Obama shouldn’t worry about black voters abandoning him over the issue.”
A news release from the young conservatives’ group said:
[S]upporting marriage is in line with basic conservative values of responsibility and community, as well as limited government and individual freedom.
A number of high profile Republicans have spoken in support of same-sex-marriage. Among them are former Vice President Dick Cheney and former First Lady Laura Bush.
Libertarians and some conservatives often point out that the U.S. Constitution offers no definition of the term marriage.
Freedom to Marry has established a website for the campaign where there’s a story about 200 mayors across the U.S. who support same-sex-marriage.
(Filed by Kay B. Day/July 26, 2012)