Release date: July 12, 2004
Contact: Deb Hammacher, Associate Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0644 or dhammac@emory.edu

Marriage Amendment Unlikely to Sway Black Voters

The U.S. Senate begins debate today on a same-sex marriage constitutional amendment, despite administration acknowledgement that there are not enough votes to get the change approved. The issue is dividing politicians largely along party lines with Republicans in favor of the amendment. Many Democrats have accused GOP leaders of bringing the amendment up for potentially volatile debate as an election-year move to divide the Democratic party. Caught in the middle are many African-American politicians and voters who tend to be Democrats, but also more conservative than their party on the issue of same-sex marriage.

While black voters tend to be socially conservative on the topic of gay marriage, the subject will have little impact on how they will vote in the presidential election, says Emory University political scientist Robert Brown.

"How Kerry and Edwards vote on the proposed gay marriage amendment will make very little, if any, difference in how African-Americans will vote in the presidential election. Bush and Cheney have such high negatives among this voting block that Bush will be lucky to get the 9 percent of the vote he received in 2000."

Robert Brown is assistant dean for Emory College and a political scientist specializing in African-American and urban politics, racial attitudes, race and American social policy, and urban poverty. Reach Brown at 404-727-6563 or rabrown@emory.edu.

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