Comparisons

Today’s post is about comparisons. As men, we are often sizing each other up, but in this case, I wanted to compare political control of the states with it’s effects on same-sex marriage recognition.

The above map shows party control of the state legislatures. Those in Red represent that both houses of the state legislature are controlled by the Republican Party. Those in Blue represent that both houses of the legislature are controlled by the Democratic Party. The three states in Purple (Iowa, Kentucky, and New Hampshire) represent that one house of the legislature is controlled by Democrats while the other is controlled by Republicans.

The above map shows party control of the state governorship. Those in Red represent that the governor is a member of the Republican Party. Those in Blue represent that the governor is a member of the Democratic Party.

The above map shows which states recognize and perform gay marriage. All states whose legislature is currently controlled by the Denocratic Party have legalized gay marriage. In most of the states that have Republican controlled state legislatures have had gay marriage made legal through the courts. You will also notice that the political party of the governor does not correspond well with the map of states with same-sex marriage.

I decided to use the visual aids to help us visualize the politicalization of America. JiEL commented yesterday that he’d like to see a map of the state-by-state political make-up of the United States. He said, “I’m almost sure that the same states that are against equality of marriage rights and liberty rights are those same ones….” I agreed that it would be interesting to compare the different maps. I hope you’ll find it interesting too.