Gay activists jarred by California marriage defeat

AP via SFGate ^ | 11/5/8 | DAVID CRARY and LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writers

[SmithL]

LOS ANGELES -- In a heartbreaking defeat for the gay-rights movement, California voters put a stop to gay marriage, creating uncertainty about the legal status of 18,000 same-sex couples who tied the knot during a four-month window of opportunity opened by the state's highest court.

Passage of a constitutional amendment against gay marriage — in a state so often at the forefront of liberal social change — elated religious conservatives who had little else to cheer about in Tuesday's elections. Gay activists were disappointed and began looking for battlegrounds elsewhere in the back-and-forth fight to allow gays to wed.

"There's something deeply wrong with putting the rights of a minority up to a majority vote," said Evan Wolfson, a gay-rights lawyer who heads a group called Freedom to Marry. "If this were being done to almost any other minority, people would see how un-American this is."

Legal skirmishing began immediately, with gay-rights groups challenging the newly passed ban in court Wednesday and vowing to resist any effort to invalidate the same-sex marriages that took place following the state Supreme Court decision in May.

The amendment, which passed with 52 percent of the vote, overrides that court ruling by defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Thirty states now have adopted such measures, but the California vote marks the first time a state took away gay marriage after it had been legalized.

Gay-marriage bans also passed on Tuesday in Arizona and Florida, with 57 percent and 62 percent support, respectively, while Arkansas voters approved a measure aimed at gays that bars unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents.

Massachusetts and Connecticut are now the only states to allow same-sex marriage.

Even as the last votes were being counted in California, the American Civil Liberties Union...

[SmithL]

Whether you like it or not!

[MAD-AS-HELL]

are they jarred or fisted over this?

[autumnraine]

Got out the vote didn’t ya?

[Verginius Rufus]

It passed despite Jerry Brown's underhanded tactic of renaming the proposition to make it sound less appealing to the uninformed voter.

Another bright spot in California was the victory by Duncan D. Hunter, USMC, in San Diego County.

[anniegetyourgun]

I’ll never understand why these people are shocked when Americans tell them that they’d like to keep the same definition of marriage that has existed for millenia.

[Azzurri]

"There's something deeply wrong with putting the rights of a minority up to a majority vote," said Evan Wolfson, a gay-rights lawyer who heads a group called Freedom to Marry. "If this were being done to almost any other minority, people would see how un-American this is."

Bigamists and members of NAMBLA could make the same argument as this guy.

[Argus]

"If this were being done to almost any other minority, people would see how un-American this is."

Tell it to the polygamists!

[Boiling Pots]

Why are homosexuals categorized as a separate minority group?

Just more absurdity.

[IronJack]

"There's something deeply wrong with putting the rights of a minority up to a majority vote,"

The only thing more disturbing is putting the rights of the majority up to a minority vote. And THAT is done all the time! Or worse yet, no vote is taken. The majority's rights are just redefined by judicial fiat.

[mrvirgo]

I was happy to vote for the ban. Every polling place had queer activists holding up “Yes on 8” signs. Yeah, sure. A lot of good it did them.

[UncleDick]

Obama had a nuanced position on the issue, saying he opposes gay marriage while also speaking out against Proposition 8.

In other words, he lied. Claiming to support marriage in order to dupe moderates while opposing laws to protect marriage. Let's hope his tax policy doesn't suffer from the same "nuance"!

I'm elated that Prop 8 passed, but the exit polling is dire, showing a generational shift that will probably usher in the approve of homosexual "marriage" within a decade.

[hedgetrimmer]

It did to them good. They got nearly 50% of the vote. Ten years ago it would only have been 20% and ten years before that they would have never tried.

They keep gaining, and they are suing to stop enactment of the proposition. Until our country returns to its roots as moral and honest people, they still can win.

[Viking2002]

'Freedom to Marry'

Didn't he mean 'Freedom to be Mary'?

[Steamburg]

They are shocked to find that California consists of more than San Fran, Hollyweird and the newsrooms. So is the rest of the country.

It should be noted that the poling data shows that it was the Black vote that carried the day for prop 8. Maybe some of them are paying attention or is it that they don’t want to share minority privilege?

[Sparky1776]

They still have Massachusetts!

[anniegetyourgun]

That’s just evidence that they voted for Obama on one factor. In a normal universe, that would be called “racism.”

[reformed_dem]

Every polling place had queer activists holding up “Yes on 8” signs.

Wouldn't that have been "no on 8"? or "no on h8"? I saw a number of those ones.

[nomad]

You think any other group wants to claim the rump rangers as a member?

[Poison Pill]

California voters put a stop to gay marriage, creating uncertainty about the legal status of 18,000 same-sex couples who tied the knot during a four-month window of opportunity opened by the state's highest court.

Uncertainty? As the power vests in the state, by definition they created certainty.

[Ol' Sparky]

I'm elated that Prop 8 passed, but the exit polling is dire, showing a generational shift that will probably usher in the approve of homosexual "marriage" within a decade.

It would take a 2/3rd majority to overturn the amendment, assuming that dictatorial judges don't try to first. That won't happen in a decade.