The campaign to defeat Proposition 8 is counting on young voters, and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is expected to bring a flood of them to the polls November 4. People from high schoolers – some of them not even old enough to vote themselves – to college students have been working to educate voters about Prop 8, which would eliminate same-sex marriage in California.

The Public Policy Institute of California released a survey October 23 showing that 59 percent of likely voters aged 18 to 34 oppose the measure, while 37 percent support it.

Mark Baldassare, PPIC president and CEO, said an important factor in Prop 8's destiny is how many young voters show up for Obama.

In the PPIC poll, Obama is leading McCain 56 percent to 33 percent, and 72 percent of Obama supporters indicated they would vote no on Prop 8.

"If there's a large youth vote that comes out for Obama ... this will also be a youth vote that opposes Proposition 8," said Baldassare. "In a close election, that could play a very important role in determining the outcome of prop 8."

Many young voters are likely to use cell phones. Baldassare said the PPIC didn't include cell phones in its poll, but the organization made adjustments to the data "that would account for any under-representation of younger voters."

The secretary of state's office does not have voter registration statistics broken down by age but according to the PPIC data, people aged 18 to 34 make up 18 percent of all likely voters.

Lilia Tamm, director of the No on 8 campaign's college campus and blog outreach efforts, said she wouldn't be surprised if whichever side wins does so by only a couple of points and "all these new voters could be, literally, the deciding factor."

In order to reach young voters, the No on 8 campaign has been using social networking sites like Facebook. Working with opponents of Prop 4, which would require a waiting period and parental notification before a minor could get an abortion, No on 8 has a campaign involving 28 campuses statewide. Those events have included appearances by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

In a letter sent to the University of California's students and at campus appearances – including one at the University of California, Santa Cruz Tuesday – Newsom has urged young voters not to solely focus on the presidential campaign but to also be engaged down ticket.

"If millennial voters turnout in the numbers I expect and hope they will, there is no question Prop 8 will be defeated," said Newsom. "The question is will they turn out to vote only for Barack Obama or will they go down ballot?"

Tamm said No on 8's internal polls show a large number of young people vote the wrong way on Prop 8 – they think a yes vote indicates support of same-sex marriage. But she also said young voters aren't the only group that's having this problem, and the campaign is working to address the situation.

Voting down

Another concern is that people coming out to vote for Obama will mark their choice for president, and then stop, without continuing to vote down the ballot.

"We run the risk, particularly with new voters, of people just coming to vote for Obama," people "who would be on our side, but don't think or realize they also need to vote no on Prop 8," said Luke Klipp, 30, an openly gay member and past president of the S

Sean Dugar, president of the California NAACP Youth and College Division. Photo: Rick Gerharter

an Francisco Young Democrats, which has been working to defeat the measure.

Amanda Nichols, a straight, 24-year-old student at the University of San Francisco who also is hoping Prop 8 is defeated, said she's encouraging people to vote all the way down, since she's heard from people whose attitude is "I don't really care. Whatever happens, happens," when it comes to the issues that follow the choice for president.

But Baldassare said "it seems unlikely" people will just vote for Obama and then leave the ballot booth, "given all the attention Proposition 8 is being given by the media," especially electronic media and blogs.

Young at work

Beginning in late June, Ariel Lupton, a high school student living in Glendale, California who identifies as pansexual, dedicated her summer to defeating Prop 8. Lipton, 16, started as a volunteer phone banker and is now the youth subcommittee chair for Los Angeles, reaching out to other young people to get involved.

Even though people her age may not know if they'll get married, they should have that option, said Lipton.

"I don't think it's right to be trying to take away somebody's fundamental freedom," she said.

Nicole Carothers, 18, a student at UCSC who identifies as queer and is working to defeat Prop 8, said many youth are involved because "they couldn't vote, yet they felt like they needed to contribute to the cause somehow," so phone banking has been a helpful outlet.

"By them trying to get people to vote no, that's like them voting no," said Carothers.

Amelia TerKeurst recently celebrated her 18th birthday by inviting over 50 people to phone bank with her at No on 8 headquarters in San Francisco. Only seven showed up ("it was a last-minute thing," she said), but the experience made her feel "amazing."

"I hope to someday have a life partner, and I'd really love to be able to marry her when that time comes," she wrote in an e-mail.

TerKeurst also had some advice for Prop 8 supporters: "If you don't like gay marriage, don't get one."

Of course, not all college students oppose Prop 8. As previously reported on the Bay Area Reporter 's Web site, the student association at Sacramento's American River College last month voted 8-3 to support Prop 8. Five of those votes were cast by Slavic Christian fundamentalists. It was reported last week that the members of the student association who voted to support Prop 8 recently survived a recall effort that came as a result of their position.

Faith and religion

Religion and faith have been used to reach out to young people, especially when it comes to opposing same-sex marriage.

Kids are prominently featured in a video promoting 12 hours of prayer and fasting at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego on Saturday, November 1 in a gathering known as The Call.

In the video, Lou Engle – The Call's founder – in a gravelly, bellicose voice, refers to the debate over same-sex marriage and other issues as "a confrontation between light and darkness."

"There is what I would call a spiritual battle for the soul of our nation," Engle told the B.A.R . "It's not just homosexuality, it's the whole spectrum," he said, after explaining that he's also concerned about divorce, drug addiction, and pornography.

"I hope people don't feel like it's hate, because we're not pointing the finger to hate people," said Engle.

Missy Huff, 21, said she and other young people from around the country have been fasting and praying since September 24 for the passage of Prop 8. Huff said she's only had juice and water, and she's tired, but the fast is almost over.

Huff said she and others involved "love homosexuals" but "I believe wholeheartedly that there's a design for all people," and that God "designed the covenant of marriage to be between one man and one woman."

Huff is part of a group who moved to San Francisco because they "had a burden to pray for San Francisco and people who live there."

After fasting and praying beforehand, they visit neighborhoods like the Castro, the Tenderloin, and Haight-Ashbury to preach about Jesus and ask people if they want prayers for anything.

Vincent Cervantes, an evangelical Christian who's 21 and gay, plans to be at Qualcomm Stadium, too, but he's organizing a drum circle designed as a counterprotest of the event.

Cervantes has been posting bulletins on the social networking site MySpace and phonebanking at No on 8 headquarters in San Diego, and said the effort to ban same-sex marriage hurts him.

"This is something that's going to completely change the laws of California, and the lives of a certain group of people," said Cervantes, who's been with his partner for two years and hopes to get married.

Matt Gonzales, a straight friend of Cervantes's, has been working to oppose Prop 8 at Azusa Pacific University, where Cervantes went to school until 2006, when he said he was kicked out for being in a gay partnership.

(Maureen Taylor, public relations director for the school, said records indicate he left voluntarily. The school's Web site notes, "In Scripture several sexual behaviors are expressly forbidden," including fornication and homosexual acts.)

Gonzales, 21, wrote in an e-mail that, "As an individual I was sick of the implicit message on campus that Yes on Prop 8 was the only moral decision."

He created the Facebook group "APU Students Against Prop 8," which has 120 members – "a big deal for a school that blatantly calls homosexuality sinful" – and, among other things, he and his roommate threw a "Propaganda Party" to encourage students to create visible signs of opposition to Prop 8, including T-shirts and posters.

Nichols, the USF student, said she's a practicing Catholic and feels somewhat hurt and abandoned about the Catholic Church's support of Prop 8.

Nichols, who believes strongly in the separation of church and state, said she's surrounded herself with people of faith who feel the same way she does, people who find it "hard to believe that God would want us to discriminate against a group of people."

Sean Dugar, president for the youth and college division of the California NAACP, said religion played a part in the division's decision on whether to oppose Prop 8.

"We actually had a lot of internal debate on it ... a lot of youth councils are organized out of churches," said Dugar, who's 24 and declined to state his orientation.

However, he said, the state organization's position has been that regardless of someone's religious beliefs, everyone should have equal rights under the law. Representatives of at least 20 of the state organization's 30 youth councils voted unanimously to oppose Props 8 and 4 and several other measures, Dugar said.