As someone who worked against Amendment 2 and felt hurt by the results, I appreciate the general sentiment behind Todd Portnowitz's guest column, but I take serious issue with the implication that all of Sen. John McCain's supporters are unreasonable or immature voters.
When I spoke about Amendment 2, it made me smile whenever people would begin a sentence with "I'm a proud conservative Republican" and end it with "but I'm voting 'no' on Amendment 2."
Some of them were doing so out of a libertarian, "get big government out of my personal life" mentality, but most said they thought the amendment was mean-spirited. They didn't want to be a part of a gratuitous voter dog-pile on a group of people who are already picked on.
At its heart, Amendment 2 was an apolitical issue, a question of empathy and compassion. It passed because Yes2Marriage's remarkably effective job of stoking people's fears and shamelessly lying about the amendment's implications. It's disheartening to think it worked, but I'm grateful to everyone - of all political stripes - who stood up against it.
I know exit polls showed lopsided support for Amendment 2 among self-identified Republicans; according to the Department of State, about 62 percent voted "yes." The estimated 38 percent who didn't have my thanks.
Dismissing Republicans as unreasonable or immature isn't helpful when the cause of gay advocacy needs all the voices of support it can get.
