Your article is plausible and perhaps a fair examination of one factor in the victory of Prop 8, but it patently avoids examination of one obvious non-Obama cause in order to flog its catchy thesis: There was an incredibly organized, well-funded, and powerful push by Catholics, Mormons, Southern Baptists, and non-affiliated evangelical "megachurches" to enlist their members in the pro-8 cause.

As a resident of one conservative Christian small town, and a school teacher in another fifty miles distant, I witness hundreds of corner picketers, a dozen or more sidewalk demonstrations, aand numerous churches with pro-Prop 8 signs. My students were abuzz with talk of their fervent passion for the concept of marriage between a man and a woman only. They tended to cite the (untrue) danger that their churches would be forced to perfom gay marriages under threat of lawsuit, and that schools would require that homosexuality would be taught as part of the curriculum. When I suggested that marriage for all was a civil rights or a privacy issue, students said yes, it was their right to religious freedom that was being abridged.

I have not run across a single African-American supporter of Prop. 8, nor have I seen any black pro-8 protesters. Of course, there are probably black members of the pro-8 congregations but in much of California, except for a few Baptist churches, the great majority of propagandizd and recruited Prop 8 proseltyzers would have been white Christians. And I believe their churches' money and bully pulpits and grass-roots organizing in Sunday schools and youth groups comprised a vastly more proximate cause of Prop 8's narrow victory than did blacks brought to the polls for Obama.

Who cares about some sick, perverted, child molesting white homosexuals?

Are you people smoking?

Are you for real? If so, please peddle your hatred and homophobia elsewhere. No one here is interested.

I think you ought to re-read the article. Key passage: "blacks favored Proposition 8 by a margin of 70 to 30." Of course, comparing a small sub-set of one race (white, born-again Christians) to an entire race (black) does really boost your argument, especially since most whites were against the prop. While you don't feel you know any homophobic blacks, I have known many (in addition, of course, to ones who are not). But it is hard to fathom how you can condemn strains of homophobia in one group and not another.

The supporters of gay marriage had plenty of money, ran a super-carefully crafted campaign and still lost. And now complain because the wrong people got to vote. That's just not right, somehow....

I am not sure I would say super ell crafted, and they were certainly outspent, just as all the PAS initiatives get out spent.

All and all I just dont think this is a good way to run a constitution. As for the fact that people voted to turn back the clock 15 years, thats fine, in 25 years the people who voted for this will all be treated like we treat segregationists now. Among people under 30 it is a non-issue.

Your post rings absolutely true to me. This was my experience, also; every bit of it, including the misinformation being fed to people about what the failure of this to pass would mean. I live in SoCal, in a smaller town, predominantly white/hispanic, with a long-standing tight group of city council members who are all fundamentalist Christians. So, that means my town tends to be fundamentalist Christian leaning, whether we like it or not.

The push for prop 8 was unlike anything I've ever seen. They went door-to-door relentlessly and put vote yes signs up on people's property without permission. Anyone driving down the street would think the entire town was in favor of this proposition, which kind of leads people in a certain direction (nobody wants to be on the losing side of a vote if they think they'll be the only one) and I could not go into a store without being accosted by someone handing me a pamphlet and encouraging me to vote in favor of this measure. I've never seen anything like it.

All of the churches in our area, mega and regular, held the same sermon (rally) on the Sunday before election day and this was advertised on both television and radio. Get out there and pass prop 8 or have their right to "religious freedom" denied them.

I agree with your second argument, however, as a gay male of African descent and over 30, this is a big issue for me. It means that I will likely be treated as a 2nd-class citizen for the rest of my lifetime. This confirms that the majority of the voters in the Golden State are not progressive at all.