Issue 1 Chart for Cuyahoga County, Ohio

red = yes; blue = no



large version

that is a mess.:mad:

I for one am ashamed of Issue 1... even if you are an opponent of gay marriage, the gay marriage law passed here in Ohio gives no domestic protection to gay and lesbian couples whatsoever... even opponents should be able to admit that this law challenges civil liberties and alienates gays and lesbians by by not giving them equal protection when it comes to personal property and such...

I fear that America is getting lost more in more in its own selfishness... Jesus would not approve of this either...

It shows a consisent pattern seen all over Ohio.

Black precincts voted for Issue 1 en masse, as did rednecks and fundies.

The large blue area at the right is Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights and University Heights. Such white liberal areas voted against issue 1 and for Kerry.

Lakewood, right underneath the compass points, is solid blue (against issue 1) and is described as follows:

Short Description: progressive, ethnically diverse with a mixture of youth and age, upper middle class world of apartment dwellers, exotic restaurants and cultural centers.

Family Types: Single Ethnicity: ethnically diverse; predominately white, high Asian & Hispanic Predominant Age Range: 25-44; 65+

Education: College Graduate

Employment: White Collar; Professional; business, finance, public sector

Housing Type: Renter of Multi-Unit

Median Income: $51,016 Median

Home Value: $109,000 (from 1999 PRIZM data)

Politics: liberal independent Key Issues: gay rights, defusing racial tensions, environmental protection, increasing military spending

Consumer Pattern: behave like upper middle class sophisticates; specialty shops, ethnic markets, family restaurants, delis, sushi bars, taco joints, Nordstrom, jazz music, Kias, Volkswagen, Nissan.

Interests: multiculturalism, intellectually challenging pursuits, theater, adult education, libraries, public broadcasting, alternative health.

Also interesting is that professional white Republican precincts such as Bay Village (upper left corner) and Chagrin Falls (middle far right) had the sense to vote against Issue 1, even while voting for Bush.

This graphics tool might me very useful for showing suspicious or odd-looking voting patterns for select offices (like for president). For instance compare vote for state democratic candidates with vote (or not) for Kerry. Maybe some other factors (ethnicity, income) could be identified as well. Think about it.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

The greater Cleveland area isn't very "sophisticated" in the sense that New York (City) is - and that is a compliment, New Yorkers. But if there were any communities in northeast Ohio that come close to that kind of openness and cultural sophistication, it's Cleveland Hits and the surrounding municipalities, and Lakewood.

BTW, here's a map to go with that, showing which communities (for any Ohioans, LOL... or just for me :) )

red = for Bush, for issue 1 (rural/blue collar conservatives)
pink = for Bush, against issue 1 (rich white conservatives)
purple = for Kerry, against issue 1 (white liberal urban sophisticates)
blue = for Kerry, for issue 1 (blacks and blue collar white Democrats)

...although, I want to clarify that the purple areas - especially Cleveland Hts - has a large African-American population. Cleveland Hts, Shaker Hts, University Hts, Beachwood are very mixed areas - black, white, and Jewish, middle to upper middle class, almost equally mixed together, some very affluent. So it's not just white liberals.

Unfortunately, it is true, I think, that African-Americans are still very sensitive about the gay community. It doesn't affect the national election, as a whole, I doubt very many blacks voted against Kerry for that reason, but they (we) did vote very heavily for the amendment (I didn't, I voted it down - I live in one of those purple areas, LOL). Also, that very thin purple line going east right on the lake is also mixed culturally.

Neither would Buddha

The second sentence does not mention the genders of the parties involved. ("This state and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance or effect of marriage.")

A handful of universities offer domestic partnership health care benefits to unmarried couples - as of the effective date of the amendment they will be prohibited from continuing those benefits even to heterosexual couples.

All sorts of private contracts which offer benefits based on recognition of non-marital relationships (potentially including virtually all joint property owership by unmarried pairs of indivdiuals) will be unenforceable - since court enforcement involves state recognition. Courts may be unable to probate wills leaving property to "beloved partners" to whom one happens not to be married, dropping that portion of the estate back to inheritance laws. And potentially the most devastating, courts may be unable to enforce domestic violence laws (recently extended based on de facto family relationship rather than marriage) setting up special expedited and extended protection in the case of violence within the home when the family members involved in the violence are not married to each other.

A Clevelander informed me that the blue area in the chart above, identified as "blacks," includes Parma and Parma Heights (blue concentration in middle left). These are white blue collar communities--union members who like blacks voted for Kerry and for Issue 1.

Turns out there's a way to differentiate the two based on the same two parameters of Kerry% and Issue1%. The black precincts voted for Kerry in excess of 70% and the blue collar precincts voted for Kerry 50-70%. With that criterion, the map becomes: