Gay marriage and coalition politics

Pam reports some racist invective at a Prop 8 rally. It doesn't help, but it also doesn't matter. People need to support gay marriage because it's the right thing, not because they have some expectation that gay people are less racist. There's considerable data that a large swath of Latino America is more racist than white America. But, for my money, that has nothing to do with where you should fall on immigration policy. Ditto for this e-mail I got yesterday:

I am an educated, upper-middle-class, white, Christian man who can easily "pass" as straight.  For most of my adult life, I have voted against the self-interest of my own socioeconomic class in favor of affirmative action, public school funding, and all sorts of other issues and programs that benefit the African-American and other minority communities.  I think that a lot of the anti-black anger that has been expressed in the past week has been, in part, out of a sense of betrayal by communities that gay people have long supported.

I guess. But no one should ever cast a vote as a quid-pro-quo. If you truly believe a policy isn't in your interest, than you really should oppose it. I like Andrew and all, but I don't support gay marriage because I expect him to recant on the Bell Curve. I support it because I think family is a societal good--which benefits me individually. Raise your kid right, and I don't have to worry about him sticking up my kid. Pool your resources, and maybe I don't have to worry about you defaulting on your home. More abstractly, I simply don't enjoy living in a country that discriminates. That's my feeling. That's about what I want, how I want to live. I don't expect a reward for it. I don't expect a cookie.

UPDATE: Responding to Morzer's comment below, I added some hyperlinks. Still, "large swath" is probably too strong a phrase. I hope none of my brown folk are too ticked off.