Excellent (IMHO) analysis of the Prop 8 vote by Richard Kim of The Nation......

[marmar]

Marital Discord: Why Prop 8 Won
By Richard Kim

November 5, 2008



Amid the honks and cheers of joy in the Castro and West Hollywood, there are quiet signs of anxiety and, as state election results come in, a growing sense of anguish. Something is not right in the Golden State. Even as Californians gave 61 percent of their vote to Barack Obama, a majority of them, 52 percent, voted to discriminate against another kind of minority--gays and lesbians. For a brief window that began in the bridal month of June, California queers had the right to marry, thanks to a state Supreme Court ruling, and some 18,000 same-sex couples said "I do." Proposition 8--a ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman--now says "You can't!"

As I write, the results for the second most expensive campaign in the country after the presidency itself are not yet official. According to the No on 8 campaign, as many as 3 to 4 million absentee and provisional ballots have yet to be counted, and gay activists are rightly refusing to concede until they are. But there is little reason to expect that those votes will tip the scales. Other numbers paint an even grimmer picture. If exit polls are to be believed, some 70 percent of African-Americans voted Yes on 8, as did 53 percent of Latinos and 49 percent of Asians; each of these demographics went heavily for Obama; blacks by a 94-to-6 margin. Los Angeles County, heavily minority, went 50-50 on Prop 8. These results have shocked gay activists, who knew from earlier polls, for example, that black voters favored Prop 8, but they were seeing much smaller margins, closer to 50 percent.

The easy, dangerous explanation for this gap, and one already tossed around by some white gay liberals in the bitter aftermath, is that people of color are not so secretly homophobic. But a more complicated reckoning--one that takes into account both the organizing successes of the Christian right and the failures of the gay movement--will have to take place if activists want a different result next time. First, there's the matter of the Yes on 8 coalition's staggering disinformation campaign. Ad after ad told voters that without Prop 8, their churches would be forced to perform same-sex unions and stripped of their tax-exempt status; that schools would teach their children to practice homosexuality, and, perhaps most effective, that a smiling Barack Obama had said, "I'm not in favor of gay marriage." This last bit went out in a flier by the Yes on 8 campaign targeting black households.

Obama indeed does not favor gay marriage, as he said during the primary, but he also came out emphatically against Prop 8, as a late TV ad by the No on 8 campaign emphasized. Mainstream outlets like the LA Times meticulously countered the other lies as well, but too little, too late. They had taken root in many communities of color, and once lodged, proved difficult to dislodge. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081124/kim

[2Design]

1. kick

[kevinbgoode]

2. And, once again. . .I have to live with the knowledge that I voted

for a President whose own words were used to take away my constitutional rights - and those are words which he will use again and again. He also said there was room for "compromise"...is there some reason why I should believe the Democratic Party - and heterosexuals - that there is some kind of compromise about equal rights and equal protection under the law? Is it not MY Constitution too?

I don't want any more rhetoric about my second class status from any more public officials. Their job is to protect my rights - not make statements abrogating them and then backtracking. We have every reason to demand that the Obama Administration decisively move to eliminate the heinous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, pass ENDA and attack DOMA.

And what I fear we'll see is, once again - nothing. And we'll be told to wait another few years and then told to help raise money and vote for another candidate who will tell us to wait another few years. And then be told by others that we are being "selfish" by a growing unwillingness to have our rights thrown under the bus so that other things can be accomplished.

Barack Obama should have NEVER made that statement about marriage. When he did that, he told my community that he valued the support of conservatives over the fundamental rights of my own people. He can talk a lot about how we are all Americans, but until I am treated as a free American citizen, it's nothing more than talk.

[marmar]

3. Afternoon kick......

n/t