Civil Liberties

Backwards into the Future: California's Anti-Gay Marriage Proposition Apparently Passes; and Arizona's and Florida's Too

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From the Wall Street Journal:

Early poll results Tuesday night showed California voters leaning toward overturning same-sex marriage in the state in a decision that could impact how the issue plays out elsewhere in the nation.

Approval of Proposition 8 would be a stunning upset in a $70-million campaign that just weeks ago looked to be running in favor of preserving gay marriage rights.

By 12:34 a.m. in California, 53.1% of voters favored passing Prop 8, as the measure is known, and 46.9% were against it, with 60% of precincts voting, according to the Secretary of State. However, both sides cautioned the vote could be very close and that it might still be early to declare a winner.

The passage of Prop 8, as it is known, would be a major victory for religious conservatives seeking to ban gay marriage in other states, and a crippling setback for the gay rights movement nationwide.

More here.

And just to throw more a wrench into things, the LA Times reports that whites opposed the initiative, blacks supported it, and latinos were split.

So is a new post-racial America one in which gays still get left at the altar? Oy.

Update: Similar initiatives specifying marriage only as the union of a man and a woman, forerver and ever or however long it lasts, passed in Arizona and Florida. Read more here.

In Connecticut, voters rejected a prop that would have allowed the state Constitution to be rewritten to ban gay marriage, which the Nutmeg State Supreme Court ruled was legal recently.