Gay Marriage Poll
I received this via an e-mail list I subscribe to from my old college.
Hey, a "pro-family" group is collecting petitions to show that, by
gosh, everyone who visits their webpage (how scientific and unbiased) is against homosexual marriage and/or civil unions. They're presenting the results to Congress. Wouldn't it be neat if a bunch of other people went to their webpage and gave them a bit of a wider sample of the population? I mean, if
the AFA tells Congress that by their own study most people are in
FAVOR of homosexual unions, wouldn't that be kind of neat?
The poll bugs me. Okay, not the poll, but that the AFA would present its results to Congress as representative of anything. I would think that most Congress critters understand that such a poll would be incredibly unscientific and representative only of people who would visit the AFA website in the first place. However, now the cat's out of the bag, and people who wouldn't normally visit the website are going and voting in the poll. The results are still incredibly unscientific, but I rather think it serves the AFA right. If they wish to poll their membership or prospective membership for their own knowledge, more power to them. But to present the results of said poll as anything other than skewed is ridiculous.
Given that the results are now running about 50/50, I wonder if the AFA will still present its results to Congress? I'm sure they must have figured out that the poll is being gamed. Well, gamed by the other side. It was gamed to begin with.
Incidentally, an actual poll conducted with a nationwide random sample indicates that 55% of Americans oppose gay marriage. The AFA could just use scientifically valid results to prove their case. But no.
Comments
Yes, a friend sent this to me as well. My response was that it was about as valid as surveying the Klan on the question of "Are blacks human beings?"
While hopefully most people (hope, hope, hope against hope) would have sense enough to see the bias, I'm afraid that people like Rick Santorum might not.
Posted by: andy | December 19, 2003 09:46 AM
He he. I just went and voted. 49% are for it and 42% are against it.
Posted by: Cornelia | December 19, 2003 04:16 PM
If you go to the AFA site now you'll see those in favor of gay marriage beat those opposed by 2 to 1. Let's see if they present the poll now. I doubt it.
Posted by: Stevin | January 21, 2004 08:38 AM
the afa after finding the poll's outcome not to their likings have decided not to send it off.
Posted by: Sam | January 23, 2004 07:01 AM
The poll was shot around to gay activist groups who flooded it with responses. Either way it would have been a skewed result, as planed or as it ended up. If taken from an honest cross section of america though, a heavy majority would be against.
Posted by: Steven | February 4, 2004 09:12 PM
Sorry, Steven, but 55%, the results from an honest cross section of America, while a majority against, does not constitute a heavy majority against. Why overstate your case, when an honest statement will still work in your favor? It's like people I work with who present ridiculously over-inflated benefit calculations to get their projects approved. The project would still be approved with reasonable benefit calculations (since the NPV is positive), so the only result of using the over-inflated benefits is to make the project sponsor look incompetent. The only ones who are fooled by the over-stated benefits are fools themselves.
Posted by: Lesley | February 4, 2004 09:27 PM
i'm gay and i don't see anything wrong it. if it's in the privacy of your own home, other people shouldn't care. i think that any law banning gay marriage is an invasion of privacy.
p.s. it reduces the population.
p.p.s. anyone who is against homosexuality sucks a puddle of goo!
Posted by: Andy Griffith | February 11, 2004 11:11 AM
i'm gay and i don't see anything wrong it. if it's in the privacy of your own home, other people shouldn't care. i think that any law banning gay marriage is an invasion of privacy.
p.s. it reduces the population.
p.p.s. anyone who is against homosexuality sucks a puddle of goo!
Posted by: Andy Griffeth | February 11, 2004 11:12 AM
Gay's suck !
Posted by: butthead | February 24, 2004 11:12 AM
Gay is not normal, so why try to make it acceptable. We need people with values! I don't hate gays, but I don't think it is something that should be accepted as marriage per say. More like a partnership.
Posted by: heman | February 24, 2004 11:14 AM
Gay is to Hay, as Wrong is to gay marriages !
Posted by: President Bush | February 24, 2004 11:17 AM
Smelly Toothless one says, keep that thing to yourself !.
Posted by: Toothless One | February 24, 2004 11:18 AM