THE TELEGRAPH: Gay marriage will be banned in California after voters turning out to back Barack Obama gave their assent to a motion known as Proposition 8.
Around 70 per cent of the African-American voters who overwhelmingly backed Mr Obama also approved Proposition 8, helping pass the controversial ballot measure despite a small majority of whites voting against the ban on same-sex unions. Hispanic and Asian voters were split on the issue.
The state's black turnout jumped to 10 per cent of the electorate, up from 6 per cent in 2004, as voters inspired by Mr Obama flocked to the polls for the first time. The Democratic candidate took the state with 61 per cent of the popular vote.
Although the president-elect opposed the gay marriage ban, it appears his supporters may have helped pass the measure that was vociferously opposed by many white Democrats.
The news is a blow to gay rights campaigners, who had hoped California would be the vanguard for the legalisation of same-sex marriage across the US. More than 18,000 homosexual couples have wed in the state since its supreme court allowed gay marriages earlier this year. The status of those unions is now in doubt.
On the day that Mr Obama swept to power, voters handed a number of defeats to gay campaigners.
Amendments to ban gay marriage were also approved in Arizona and Florida, and Arkansas voters approved a measure banning unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents
But gay rights campaigners, who spend tens of millions of dollars fighting to oppose Proposition 8, have vowed not to admit to defeat. A petition to dismiss the measure on the grounds that decision of such importance should be taken by state legislatures rather than voters has already been filed to the Supreme Court.
"We pick ourselves up and trudge on," said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. "There has been enormous movement in favour of full equality in eight short years. That is the direction this is heading, and if it's not today or it's not tomorrow, it will be soon." [Source: The Telegraph] By Matthew Moore | November 6, 2008
THE TELEGRAPH: It's Time for America to Abandon Gay Prejudice
In his powerful and moving acceptance speech Barack Obama singled out many groups including gays who now could believe that this election would make a difference.
Yet, ironically, it was the sheer scale of Obama’s victory which ensured that Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriages in California, was passed into law.
Records number of black people queued excitedly alongside thousands of gay men and women in California to vote for Obama. Yet in the privacy of the ballot box around 70 per cent of the African-Americans, who have complained of the prejudice they have suffered from the white community, voted to enshrine in law discrimination against gays.
They ignored the wishes of their charismatic hero, America’s first black President, and instead heeded the hell fire and brimstone homilies of their pastors from their pentecostal churches. Those pastors, like the hockey mum Sarah Palin, regard homosexuality as a disorder which can be treated. It can’t.
A staggering $74 million was spent on the Proposition campaign, most of it raised from the church, making it the most expensive social-issue campaign in US history. On the same day Obama fulfilled the American dream, amendments outlawing gay-marriage were also approved in Arizona and Florida. The celebrations in gay households over Obama’s victory will have been bitter sweet.
The Proposition 8 constitutional amendment now limits marriage to heterosexual couples, nullifying the California Supreme Court decision that made them legal since June. The legal status of 18,000 gay couples, who have already entered into civil partnerships, may now be challenged.
Yet in Britain people have absorbed the idea of gay weddings with remarkable ease. Why wouldn’t they? It’s not much different from the straight variety albeit with some logistical difficulties. >>> By Andrew Pierce | November 6, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>
