Education 5X More Important Than Race with Regard to Gay Marriage Ban

A Florida political science professor and a UF graduate student are set to present findings of a study on Florida's Amendment 2, which passed last November banning same-sex marriage in the state, to the American Political Science Association meeting in Toronto.

The Gainesville Sun reports: "The study found education was about five times as important as race in determining whether a county's residents favored the ban. The results contradict claims that newly registered black voters who cast ballots for Barack Obama were a socially conservative group that can be credited with passing the ban...Controlling for political and socioeconomic factors, the study found each additional 1 percent of a county's population with bachelor's degrees correlated with a 1 percent decrease in support for the amendment. In comparison, each 1 percent increase in a county's black population led to two-tenths of a percent increase in support. 'There's a lot of evidence showing increased education leads to greater tolerance,' [professor Dan] Smith said."