Todays USA election has seen some interesting results for Gay Marriage advocates

Although Obama has had some swings in his stand for Gay marriage he has most recently supported it.

Obama supported legalizing same-sex marriage when he first ran for the Illinois Senate in 1996,[33] was undecided about legalizing same-sex marriage when he ran for re-election to the Illinois Senate in 1998,[34] and supported civil unions but not same-sex marriage when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004 and for U.S. President in 2008.[33] Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment which would have defined marriage as between one man and one woman, but stated in a 2008 interview that he personally believes that marriage is "between a man and a woman" and that he is "not in favor of gay marriage."[35] He supports civil unions that would carry equal legal standing to that of marriage for same-sex couples, but believes that decisions about the title of marriage should be left to the states.[36][37][23] On May 9, 2012, Obama announced that he supported gay marriage, making him the first president in American history to support same-sex marriage while in office.[38]

so his election is good news for Same sex marriage equality.

At the state level a number of states had votes on same sex marriage issues..

Two seem decided now

Maine Question 1 Allow same-gender marriage? 54% for, 46% against Approved

Maryland Question 6 Keep same-gender marriage law? 52% for, 48% against Approved

and the remaining ones seem to me) and I may be wrong – to be looking like they may go the way Same sex marriage supporters would want

Minnesota Amendment 1 Ban future same-gender marriage laws? 48% for, 49% against

LATER EDIT – this has been defeated 47% for – 53% against (which is good for same sex marriage fans)

Washington Referendum 74 Keep same-gender marriage law? 52% for, 48% against

also in Iowa there is this one

Iowa Supreme Court Retain Justice David Wiggins? 54% for, 46% against

LATER EDIT – Justice Wiggins has been retained – which is good because its a worry if Judges are removed for a unanimous decision based on law – (and which is good for same sex marriage fans)

(so the issue here is the IOWA supreme court unanimously upheld gay marriage and so there was a concerted campaign to oust all the Justices. The first time that happened it took people by surprise as politics had NOT been an issue in these questions before and 3 Justices were outed. This time however both sides campaigned and a balanced view was presented. Currently looks to me like he may be retained.

So far its looking good for same sex marriage advocates. It also suggests that same sex marriage support is not the kiss of death !

What are peoples thoughts on this.

I was about to make a post on this but you beat me to it lol. So great to hear 2 states approve of gay marriage.

I'm still waiting (and keeping a keen eye out) for part 2 of 3 for NZ's Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill to progress and *hopefully* get passed into law sometime in 2013.

I noticed how many states still don't recognize gay marriage though, it's REALLY disappointing. I'm sure Jesus is doing so many facepalms thinking… 'It's taken you people THIS long to figure out I don't hate you all? Wow.' XD I wonder how long it will be before all 50 states legalise gay marriage. I am certainly going to keep an eye out for more news on it, that's for sure.

A good writeup on this in the Sydney Morning Herald today

http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-election/historic-day-for-gay-marriage-20121108-28zdj.html

Voters in Maine and Maryland on Tuesday approved same-sex marriage on a day of election results that jubilant gay rights advocates called a historic turning point, the first time marriage for gay men and lesbians has been approved at the ballot box.

In Minnesota, in another first, voters rejected a proposal to amend the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman, a measure that has been enshrined in the constitutions of 30 states. A state law barring same-sex marriage remains on the books there, but with the defeat of the amendment, the door remains open to change by the legislature or the courts.

We have made history for marriage equality.

While six states and the District of Columbia have legalised same-sex marriage through judicial or legislative decisions, voters had rejected it more than 30 times in a row.

Final results in Washington, the fourth state voting on Tuesday on marriage equality, were still coming in, but with half the votes reported, the proposal to legalise gay marriage had a small majority.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-election/historic-day-for-gay-marriage-20121108-28zdj.html#ixzz2BaRDZSPl

Ha ha don't worry man, I know you didn't mean to insult or steal my thunder XD

This is all such awesome news. I too was hooked on the 2012 American Election (We had live coverage on both news channels in NZ – it was awesome), despite it not really affecting me or NZ in any way. I was hoping and praying Obama would win, not only for gay marriage equality but for equality in general. He is the EVERYONE man, whereas Romney clearly wasn't. In fact I heard Romney wanted to make gay marriage illegal, and that to me is horrible, and would be going backwards in history, not forwards. Someone on YouTube I noticed commented something like 'Romney is still stuck in the 14th century', and I couldn't help but laugh in agreement because it was true – to me at least anyway. Each to their own!

I think society is changing and becoming more and more tolerant and accepting of LGBT individuals. We are getting there, but there is still a long ways to go. I hope that in my lifetime on earth, I see more and more states approve of gay marriage, and see much less hate crime. I am saddened that many people never got to see such an improvement of what the world has now become, I think it was Jesse Tyler Ferguson from Modern Family, who spoke in one of Obama's pro-LGBT TV adverts on YouTube, saying something about people in their graves never getting to see such historic moments (Especially when Obama said he wanted equality for gay people in his re-election speech, and not many, if any I think, presidents have said that apart from him), and I couldn't agree more. Hopefully when I meet a guy and settle down one day, I won't have to worry about my own personal safety when holding his hand, walking down the street.

Hey Jordon

regarding Mitt Romney and Gays – Im not american – so Im happy to stand corrected but I think its worth noting that Mitt had some problems that meant he couldnt always say what HE felt.

In Aus and NZ – we vote for our representatives. The Group of representatives that have the most seats in the (Lower) house then choose the prime minister. This can be a party or more likely an alliance of parties (So for example – the Howard Government in Aus was an alliance of the Liberal party and the National Party – termed the coalition because they have a long term alliance). In our current government – Labour and the Coalition BOTH control 72 seats and so Julia Gillards current government is an alliance with Labor, the Greens and three independants.

This is called a minority Government and means that Julia has to make deals to get legislation passed.

The USA is MUCH more a two party system. the Greens, Libertarians (I think they are closest to our democrats) and independents etc dont usually get any real power there compared to us.

However – there is another difference – and that is in the USA – they have a primary system where the Party Bodies in each state vote on who they want to be presidant (rather than being decided internally within the party).

Now some states are more conservative and others are more liberal than others. Its my impression too (and this may be wrong) that the republicans vary a fair bit more than the democrats do – state by state. What that means is in order to be selected AS president by the primary system – the candidates have to give the party faithful the impression of being VERY conservative (that is far right in their attitudes). This fight can be quite nasty and Romney actually got a lot of stuff hurled at him by other republicans during the primaries (which ultimately quite damaged him). HOWEVER then to actually win the election – the republican candidate then has to appear more moderate to the general electorate. This means a shift in position and managing this is quite difficult and means candidates often have had to say things that they dont mean or believe in. This is the basis for the democrats attack on Romney – flip flopping. My point is Romney may or may not have wanted to make Gay Marriage illegal but he probably had to give that impression during the primaries.

Not the situation there is even more complex because although Obama won the popular vote (just) and is president because he got the electoral college vote (google it IM so not even going to try to explain that) – the republicans (Mitt's party) control the lower house – the legislation making house. However the Democrats control the upper house. So Obama has to get the republicans to agree to any laws he wants to pass. They can just block anything they want. They can pass laws – but they also need to be passed by the democrat controlled senate – so they also need to make deals with the democrats to get any law passed (also the president has Veto power over legislation although I suspect there are limits – of tradition at least – on how much and when that can be used) – The point here is that candidates say things sometimes (even here and in NZ) knowing they wont actually be able to pass the law. They can then say honestly they tried but be happy knowing it will never actually pass. I'm sure Ive missed out on various technical issues – Im no expert on this. However its worth noting that in 1994 Mitt declared he was in favour of Gay marriage – and I would suspect thats a closer indication to his real beliefs than those he has had to adopt in order to get nominations and backing. (Rather like here – Rudd has alleged that the way Julia Gillard got the numbers to oust him was to make a deal with the Conservative Labor powers to block gay marriage whilst she was in power – even though she actually seems to be generally Gay friendly)