HRC Blog

HRC Increases Investment in Marriage Ballot Measure States

August 6, 2012 by Michael Cole-Schwartz, Director of Communications

HRC is investing $1 million in the four states facing marriage-related ballot measures in November – Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington.

The cash infusion brings HRC’s contributions to legislative and electoral marriage issues in the 2011-2012 cycle to $4.8 million.

Nationally, support for marriage equality is at 54 percent according to a June 2012 CNN poll. Public polls in Maine, Maryland and Washington show majorities of voters favoring marriage for committed gay and lesbian couples and polls in Minnesota also show voters there opposing the discriminatory constitutional amendment.

HRC has established a special ballot measure PAC to aid funding of all four states. Today’s $1 million contribution will be split evenly among Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington.

In Maine, voters will be asked for the first time in the country to affirmatively pass marriage for gays and lesbians at the ballot box. Voters in Maryland and Washington are being asked to affirm legislatively passed marriage equality laws. In Minnesota, voters will consider a constitutional amendment to ban gay and lesbian couples from marriage.