Seventy volunteers visited 1,677 homes in Baldwin Hills and Leimert Park in a
grassroots campaign for marriage equality in early July, according to William Celis of Intersections, the USC news project for South Los Angeles.
The weekend canvass was the third in Los Angeles County, but the first into South Los Angeles. The door-to-door canvassing, previously conducted in Pasadena and Glendale, target communities where Prop 8 was narrowly approved.
The anti-gay marriage measure was narrowly approved by voters last November and was largely upheld by the California Supreme Court this spring.
Face to face conversations are key to educating Angelenos, canvass organizers said.
Cellis reported that the African-American community anchored historically by its churches has, as a rule, opposed the gay-rights campaign and has bristled over comparisons by gay advocates that the GLBT campaign is comparable to the black Civil Rights movement.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, whose district encompasses South Los Angeles, along with other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, is on the record supporting marriage for all.
Six states - Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire – have passed laws in support of same-sex marriage, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.