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The Decade's Rise of Gay Marriage Thursday, 12/17/09
ABC News

Five states in 10 years may not seem like an significant accomplishment for gay marriage advocates, but for men and women who thought they might never be able to marry their same sex partners, the victories have been monumental.

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Post-1980s Children of Gay Parents Thrive in School, More Open Society Monday, 08/03/09
ABC News

Less research has been done on children in families headed by gay men, but data collected as part of the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study have shown few differences in psychosexual development, psychological adjustment and overall well-being.

"Boys seem to do as well as girls," said Dr. Nanette Gartrell, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco and principal investigator in the 23-year study.

"Most offspring of same-sex parents are heterosexual as adults," she told ABCNews.com. "By the time our study kids were 10 years old, they demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of diversity and tolerance, and an appreciation of the destructive effects of discrimination."

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Outraged By Obama Legal Brief, Gay Democratic Donors Boycotting DNC Bash Tuesday, 06/16/09
ABC News

The timing of the brief, which the president of the leading gay and lesbian rights organization said caused his community "pain," is awkward, given that next Thursday, June 25, the Democratic National Committee is hitting up the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community for cash in a fundraiser featuring Vice President Biden.

As John Aravosis at AmericaBlog reports, gay donors, outraged at the legal brief, are withdrawing their support from the event.

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Democrats' Domino Effect on Gay Marriage Issue? Thursday, 05/14/09
ABC News

Polling shows the country moving with deliberate speed on the issue. According to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, 54 percent of moderates and 52 percent of independents now favor gay marriage. That's an uptick from 38 percent and 44 percent, respectively, in 2006.

The issue still clearly cuts along partisan lines, but with 62 percent of all Democrats in favor of gay marriage, party leaders and elected officials who once opposed gay marriage will likely seek to align themselves with the majority of the party they seek to lead.

It is no surprise that the three aforementioned Democrats who recently switched their positions on the issue hail from the Northeast. According to the ABC News/Washington Post poll, support for gay marriage peaks in the East at 59 percent and gets its lowest level of regional support in the South, where only 42 percent of voters approve of same-sex marriage.

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California Gay Marriage Backers Poised to Try Again in 2010 Tuesday, 05/05/09
ABC News

California voters approved Proposition 8 in November, a change to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage. Although a decision has not yet been rendered in the legal challenge to Proposition 8, many gay marriage proponents in California expect the state Supreme Court to uphold the voter-approved ban on new gay marriages while leaving intact the gay marriages performed in 2008 when a decision of the state's High Court had temporarily legalized the practice.

The inclination on the part of Newsom, who is running for governor next year, to push for gay marriage in 2010 is in step with the thinking of Rick Jacobs, the chairman of the Courage Campaign, a liberal grassroots organization that is at the center of deciding when gay marriage advocates will launch their next campaign.

"Do we wait? My gut tells me no," Jacobs told ABC News.

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Changing Views on Gay Marriage, Gun Control, Immigration and Legalizing Marijuana Thursday, 04/30/09
ABC News

Take gay marriage, legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut and now Iowa, with Vermont coming aboard in September. At its low, in 2004, just 32 percent of Americans favored gay marriage, with 62 percent opposed. Now 49 percent support it versus 46 percent opposed -- the first time in ABC/Post polls that supporters have outnumbered opponents.

More than half, moreover -- 53 percent -- say gay marriages held legally in another state should be recognized as legal in their states.

The surprise is that the shift has occurred across ideological groups. While conservatives are least apt to favor gay marriage, they've gone from 10 percent support in 2004 to 19 percent in 2006 and 30 percent now -- overall a 20-point, threefold increase, alongside a 13-point gain among liberals and 14 points among moderates. (Politically, support for gay marriage has risen sharply among Democrats and independents alike, while far more slightly among Republicans.)

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Gay Marriage Spreads Without Backlash Wednesday, 04/22/09
ABC News

"It's almost like the silence is deafening," said Tony Fabrizio, a GOP pollster. "This is the first time in probably 15 years that the social right has really no levers of power, and they are watching their agenda get rolled back."

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Prop 8 Sparks Gay-Black Divide Wednesday, 11/19/08
ABC News

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