San Francisco - Six months after the California Supreme
Court cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California, voters in
the usually liberal state have narrowly voted for a constitutional
ban on gay marriage.
The 52-to-48-per-cent tally Wednesday morning came with more than
95 per cent of the precincts reporting, and threw into doubt the more
than 18,000 same-sex unions that have already taken place in the
state.
The measure was among the most closely watched ballot initiatives
in the US and was fueled by a record 73 million dollars of spending.
Voters in Arizona and Florida also backed constitutional amendments
banning gay marriage.
San Francisco city attorney Dennis Herrera said he would lodge a
legal appeal against the amendment on the grounds that it was
unconstitutional. Gloria Allred, an attorney for the first gay couple
to wed in the state, also said she would appeal the amendment.
The amendment was proposed by a broad coalition of religious and
conservative groups, whose main strategy was based on the argument
that failure to pass it would lead to the teaching of gay marriage
issues in the state's thousands of public schools.
That claim, repeated in TV ads replete with horror film music,
disturbing black-and-white graphics, and doom-laden voice overs, was
largely without factual merit. But it still reached its target
audience in the state's conservative inland areas.
Just as importantly, it also appeared to persuade California's
millions of black and Hispanic voters - most of whom backed
Democratic candidate Barack Obama, but whose views on gay rights are
less progressive than many other Democrats.
'Look at the Bible, it says marriage is between a man and a woman,
not a man and a man,' said Christopher Miracle, 19, a church-going
black youth from Oakland who said he voted for Obama.
'I think the story is that a strong majority of Californians
support traditional marriage and they want to see it protected,' said
Frank Schubert, manager of the Yes on 8 campaign. 'I think the story
is we ran a far better campaign than the other side. I think we had
100,000 people that gave of their resources and their time.'
Supporters of gay marriage said they were ashamed of the result
but believed it would ultimately be overturned. 'I'm ashamed that
more than half of my state's citizens are so ignorant or hateful or
fearful or all three that they could do this,' wrote blogger Michael
O'Hare.
Commenting on the website of the San Francisco Chronicle, one
reader warned proponents of the ban not to celebrate too much. 'Look
at the demographics: Young voters strongly support gay marriage. So
to all of you who are cheering for Prop 8, chew on this: Your
children and grandchildren will live in a world where gay marriage is
legal.'
On the streets of San Francisco's heavily gay Castro district,
some gays were taking a philosophical attitude. 'I never took gay
marriage as something that would stay in place because this country
is so wound up about sex and marriage,' Mike Cohn told the San
Francisco Chronicle.
'We need to be prepared to know that gay marriage can be taken
away just as easily as it was given.'
USA
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