The right-wing, anti-gay (am I repeating myself?) American Family Association is conducting a poll called, modestly enough, "America's Poll on Homosexual Marriage", and they intend to present the results to Congress.

The poll is open to everyone (it is, after all, America's Poll), but they might have forgotten to tell you about it. This oversight on their part could result in a sampling error, and of course nobody wants that to happen in America's Poll. You can help them out by taking the poll yourself, and telling any of your friends who might not have been notified by AFA.

Apparently a lot of people have decided to help them already, because yesterday the results showed only 3% were in favor of gay marriage, while today it's up to 49% in favor. Congress will be pleasantly surprised.

The poll is here: http://www.marriagepoll.com

50.68% now!

current results:

I oppose legalization of homosexual marriage and "civil unions" 41.01%
(154119 votes)
I favor legalization of homosexual marriage 50.70%
(190525 votes)
I favor a "civil union" with the full benefits of marriage except for the name 8.28%
(31121 votes)

I registered my opinion, and sent the link on to at least 10 friends. I encouraged them to send it out to others. Hopefully others here on this board do as well. One point that you may want to mention - urge folks to vote for marriage, not civil unions. The civil union option is analagous to a vote for a third party candidate - it might as well not count and it takes away from the frontrunner.
Spread the word!

I took Joe In Philly's current results from yesterday, and my own from 3 hours earlier, and did a little math. Over that 3 hour period, the votes were coming in at the following rates:

pro marriage ............. 5,443/hour
pro "civil union" .......... 922/hour

anti both ................ 1,520/hour

"pro" results combined ... 6,365/hour

Go Prose! Beat Aunties!

PS Can anyone tell me how to make columns line up in this damned thing? I enter the text and everything is lovely, then I preview the post and it looks like a dog's breakfast!

I've voted twice already, using my personal email address and the one at work. This is fun! I'll bet those jerks never realized how much "their constituency" wants gay marriage. Keep up the good work, guys. What will be really interesting is to see if they actually publish the results when they lose!

It's funny, but it's too bad that it doesn't really mean much. It's just that large internet communities are rigging the vote. Hilarious, though - I'd love to see the looks on their faces right about now. Maybe they'll rig their own vote in their favor?

Well, they stated that they will be presenting the results to congress, that should be an interesting day for them.

I actually am on the AFA's "Action Alert" email list - I figure if they are going to give me the bandwith and the head's up, I can use their system against them. Everytime they urge people to email a nastygram to someone because they actually (gasp!) treated gay people with some respect, I get to do the opposite - fun!

So I got word on this poll early last week, and dutifully posted by vote in favor of gay marriage - this must have been Monday or Tuesday, and I never would have thought to alert anyone else to vote in this. At that time, it was running >95% against gay marriage.

Way too cool to see how this is turning out - I don't think you'll be hearing about this poll being sent to Congress at any time in the near future. They must know by now that "the gays" have infiltrated their poll and are tipping the scales the other way. I personally got 7 different emails by Friday night from gay people or groups urging me to vote in this. The AFA'll just declare it has been "ruined" by gay people and drop the whole thing.

Current results:
I oppose legalization of homosexual marriage and "civil unions" 34.74% (183240 votes)
I favor legalization of homosexual marriage 56.99% (300604 votes)
I favor a "civil union" with the full benefits of marriage except for the name 8.27% (43611 votes)

57%! HA!

(Roy Robertson: there seems to be no way to make columns line up. I tried it when posting the Outsports NFL Power Rankings and had no luck.)

At least for now, it's still being promoted on their front page. (Man, these people are scary...)

I voted on there for gay marriages. I wonder what they are going to say. Probably nothing.

I voted too.

I think that if they don't provide their numbers to Congress, we should hold them accountable.

Here's the latest numbers

I oppose legalization of homosexual marriage and "civil unions" 33.48%
(190285 votes)
I favor legalization of homosexual marriage 58.24%
(330969 votes)
I favor a "civil union" with the full benefits of marriage except for the name 8.28%
(47040 votes)

330000 people voted, Can you believe that? That's awesome.

[ December 23, 2003, 08:45 AM: Message edited by: MSUBobcat ]

I voted multiple times and did not want to leave my real name every time so I became creative.

Heyward Jabloemi,

Dick Gazinya

It's still appearing on their home page, RSB, and with nearly 600,000 votes cast 58.92% now "favor legalization of homosexual marriage"....the message on their home page is still emphasizing that "THE RESULTS WILL BE PRESENTED TO CONGRESS" followed by their urge to "Please Vote Now!"....they sure didn't have to twist my arm to cast my vote (and on more than one occasion, too, just like good ol Chicago politics, right MIB? )....it will be interesting to see if they live up to their "promise" to present the results of the poll to Congress, even when the outcome is clearly NOT what these bigots had expected or hoped for!

I just got an email from AFA listing the current totals. They're threatening to cancel any vote with an invalid email, "which may cause poll results to change somewhat", according to the email. Current tallies (as of when it was sent) are:
I oppose legalization of homosexual marriage and “civil unions” total votes: 201914


I favor legalization of homosexual marriage total votes: 378691


I favor a “civil union” with the full benefits of marriage except for the name: 52238

Looks like we're winning at close to 2 to 1! Keep it up, boys and girls!

Too funny. These guys are obviously too stupid to realize that an online "poll" is easily corrupted.

I received the same email. Don't you feel just HORRIBLE for the AFA??

No, what it's more analagous to is the thoroughly discredited option of "separate but equal". Some of us around here ARE old enough to remember that!

The Wall Street Journal had a small blurb about this today:

What is funny about this is that so many politicians are so concerned about appealing to the christian conservatives, but they are too weak to even get a simple online poll to come out in their favor.

As long as you're at it, why not enter this contest as well?

http://www.republicantv.org/page2.htm

Just an FYI, but "www.marriagepoll.com" has been disabled. If you want to continue tweaking their noses, go to www.afa.net and follow the link there.
Cheers!

In shocking, SHOCKING, news... these douchebags went back on their promise.

Since their poll has failed miserably to show the kind of data they want, they have just decided to not present the poll to congress.

Full story

For the record, the current (and presumably final) score is:

We need no rights: 32.76% (284211)
We should be equal: 59.45% (515820)
Separate but equal is a good idea: 7.79% (67564)

And, here's a nice juicy quote form the AFA:

Because, clearly if we say we're going to present our findings, but our findings vary from what we expected, it's totally justifiable to not present said findings.

Their biggest mistake was simple and obviuos. Once the poll started going against them, there should have been massive mailings among the Christian Right telling them of the horrible infiltration of their website by perverts and reprobates subverting their poll. Considering the behavior of the right in the past, I find it amazing they didn't think of this. Which demonstrates, either the lack of a monolithic Christian community, or it's flagging influence.

[ January 23, 2004, 01:22 AM: Message edited by: jqueer ]

The Traditional Values Coalition (Lou Sheldon) web site is at it now. Go here, you know what to do....

http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.p...rveys&pollID=55

Whoops! How tragic...I seemed to have "accidently" voted yes to supporting a candidate who supports gay marriage....about 20 times.

For a real fun time, check out the Homosexual Urban Legends Exposed link at the top of the page with the poll....

WOW, those people are frightening!

Funny they get most of thier distorted, so called, facts from "they say, they said, is said......etc
There is no reference to who the site gets these claims, no specific organization or Dr or anyone to credit with the supposed finding the site offers.

Hmmmmmm

There are about 7 or 8 questions we need to vote on in this poll. Don't stop after voting on the first question!!!

I don't even get why some of these questions are being asked...

Should Congress pass legislation limiting the power of federal courts? Why should they? There is no reason. The court ruled that many things are unconstitutional, and many of those things were unpopular. There is no reason for Congress to pass this kind of legislation.

Should gay/transgendered people be allowed to adopt children? Absolutely! There is nothing wrong with having gay parents or transgendered parents, just like there is nothing wrong with having parents of different races or different religions.

I guess I just am not a tradionalist. Stupid Traditional Values Coalition.

The latest result:
Would you vote for a presidential candidate who supports same-sex marriage or civil unions?
Yes 57.96% (21653)
No 42.04% (15708)

Yesterday at this time it was Yes 45, No 55.

I'm not sure that trick works anymore. I tried clicking a few times on "yes", but the vote totals do not change. Apparently it dawned on the Traditional Values Coalition that it should place a cookie in your computer's files limiting you to one vote per visit, or one vote, period. Not that the cookie can't be deleted.

Hmmm looks like I will have to open and close their site every time. Well I've got time on my hands....

Assuming they use a persistent cookie, you'll need to clear it before every vote. If you're using Explorer, click Tools, Internet Options, General tab, Delete Cookies. Then reload the page and express your opinion...

You need to write a script to do that, one that wouldn't mind voting about, say, 10,000 times in a row. Of course, that would be, uh, ... well, maybe it wouldn't be wrong.

Edited to add:

On a Mac, you'd want to write that script using the Chicago typeface.

Bwahahahahahaha.

[ January 24, 2004, 06:57 PM: Message edited by: twin58 ]

I don't get it :confused:

It looks like the bigoted right wingers who run that site have been contacting their "constituents" in full force this weekend (do you suppose this was mentioned during a few Sunday morning sermons? :confused: ) as the results have changed considerably since Saturday morning -- as of now, with 49,607 votes cast there are 23,465 YES votes (47.3%) and 26,142 NO votes (52.7%).

I suggest we all clear our cookies (the steps that RedSoxBreath suggested worked for me) and continue voting....if it accomplishes nothing else, at least it will be one less poll that these bigots can use against us!

I use Windows 95's default installation settings on my computer. I also am using the MSIE 5.5 browser. MSIE 5.5 is the newest version of MSIE that will run with Windows 95. If you have MSIE and Windows 98 or newer, you surely have a newer version of MSIE than I do.

I went to the directory C:WINDOWSCookies, where I found the file "pass@traditionalvalues[1].txt". It had been placed there two days earlier. You can view cookies by alphabetical order, by file type, by size, or by the date that they were modified: that is, placed in the directory. It could be the case that multiple visits to the website result in files called "pass@traditionalvalues[1].txt", "pass@traditionalvalues[2].txt", "pass@traditionalvalues[3].txt", and so forth.

In my experience MSIE doesn't always remove cookies when I use the "Tools - Internet Options - General - Delete Files" trick. I do not, AFAIK, have an option called "Delete Cookies", just the one called "Delete Files". I delete files regularly, but I still have piles of cookies from sites I haven't been to in months.

I can delete the cookie manually. I'm sure that Netscape, or Mozilla, or other browsers have a similar option.

Edited to add:

I checked my files again and found another cookie, "pass@www.traditionalvalues[1].txt".

[ January 25, 2004, 07:38 PM: Message edited by: twin58 ]

I use a Mac, OS X. In IE, I went right into "Preferences," then under "Receiving Files," I went to "Cookies." The cookie is almost identical to the site's URL:

www.traditionalvaluesorg
(Name): lang

I just deleted it manually and was able to vote repeatedly. I urge everyone here who's supports equality to do so--rock their pulpit!

[ January 25, 2004, 08:04 PM: Message edited by: fantomas ]

fantomas, good to see anothe Mac user here. Thanks for the tip, I'll be casting votes for everyone I know, so I'm not really voting multiple times, right wink

Macs: I've got a 128, a 512, a 512Ke, a Plus, an SE, an SE/30....

My newest is a 9600, but it lacks an OS.

Edited to add:

2004 is the twentieth anniversary of the introduction of the 128, the original Mac.

http://lowendmac.com/compact/128k.shtml

[ January 26, 2004, 05:44 PM: Message edited by: twin58 ]

Good news -- it looks like our efforts are paying off as the poll numbers have swung once again in our favor....the latest results reflect 55.08% YES (32,357 votes) and 44.92% NO (26,387)....you KNOW this has got to REALLY be pissing off those right-wing homophobes who clearly "spread the word" to sway these results over the weekend.

As I said before, if this accomplishes nothing else at least it will be one less poll that these bigots can use against us down the road.

Hahahahahahaha.

In another thread, theodoresdaddy posted

yet another marriage poll

http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.p...rveys&pollID=48

should the US recognize same sex marriages from Canada?

please vote and please pass along

thanks


metromathis13 replied

Ohhh those darn Traditional Values Coaltion people. Always trying to deny the rights of gay people everywhere....

Remember, on the Traditional Values Coalition site, there are several important polls that should be subverted. Always check the other polls whenever going there to vote in their polls.

Conservative group quietly drops plans for poll
by Christopher Curtis
Gay.com / PlanetOut.com

"The conservative American Family Association (AFA) said it will not take the results of its marriage poll to Capitol Hill after a majority of respondents favored same-sex marriage, according to a Thursday report in Wired News."

So, this is what you do when you don't get the answers you wanted, you pretend the poll doesn't exist? I think we need to make sure this gets out to the public!

Psychologists call it the "file drawer effect." When your research doesn't turn out the way you planned, you file it away so no one sees it. (This of course dates from the pre-electronic age.)

[ January 27, 2004, 12:55 PM: Message edited by: SheaBoy ]

They have taken down ALL of their polls now. Guess they didn't get the results they wanted. Now they have letters they have written for people to e-mail Bush and their Senators and Congress.

The TVC sez:

I'm suuurrree they've got the top minds at Diebold handling security for this latest poll.

[ January 31, 2004, 08:00 PM: Message edited by: twin58 ]