A lag in the legislature

I wrote recently about a chart of attitudes on various gay issues by state. Naturally, a map person turned that into a map. The chart had listed 7 issues: gay marriage, gay adoption, hate crimes protection, etc. The first map how many of those issues have majority support in each state. Two states (Oklahoma and Utah) have majority support for 2, all others states support 4 or more. Alas, the second map is discouraging. It shows how many of the 7 issues have actually been enacted. Only 18 states (by my count) have enacted more than 2 issues. The third map sums it up -- it shows the number of issues that have majority support that have not been enacted yet. Michigan has 4. Alaska is the worst at 5. Then there are Iowa, Maine, and Oregon who have enacted issues without majority support.

The question is: Why? Why are there so many states so far behind public opinion? Is it simply because legislatures need time to catch up? Or are they still afraid of the religious right? In Michigan I would say it is the fear -- the Michigan Senate is under GOP control and its members were not up for re-election in 2008. It looks like we need a chance to vote on our senators before we can get rid of the obstacles.