General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I do not need... Eurocentric feminists to dictate to me what I wear or shouldn't wear. [View all]ButterflyBlood
(12,644 posts)It's not just Cedar-Riverside (which I am VERY familiar with because it's home to one of my favorite music venues) but the immediately surrounding areas that might also have large Somali populations but are part of different neighborhoods. It is basically just three precincts in the end (we can throw out the elderly one in southeast corner and North Central University one) that likely have a majority Muslim population, or at least large enough to tilt the vote. Take a look at State House district 62A (where I am) and what it entails and consider that the amendment received 28.22% of the vote here. Where did that 28.22% come from? It obviously wasn't the Uptown hipsters and post-grad degree holding yuppies.
I'm not proposing "doing" anything with this population. I'm just stating facts about the results and demographics. It's not like this pattern is isolated, recent immigrant communities have never been too supportive of gay rights, look at the Prop 8 results in California. Obviously things change. The younger generation is no doubt far more supportive (after all they don't seem to even have a problem drinking alcohol.) Even getting around 30-40% against is quite impressive, hell ten years ago that'd be about average numbers for a vote on it in most states overall! There is lots of positive things to see in all these results. But that doesn't mean we should ignore other realities and try to pretend that the most anti-gay voting groups in the city are college students and medical residents.