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California voters approve ban on same-sex marriage
Constitutional ban was also approved in Arizona, Florida
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Published: November 6, 2008
LOS ANGELES
Voters put a stop to same-sex marriage in California, dealing a crushing defeat to gay-rights activists in a state that they had hoped would be a vanguard. It also put in doubt as many as 18,000 same-sex marriages conducted since a court ruling made them legal this year.
The gay-rights movement had a rough election elsewhere as well yesterday. Amendments to ban gay marriage were approved in Arizona and Florida, and Arkansas voters approved a proposal banning unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents.
But California, the nation's most populous state, had been the big prize. Spending for and against Proposition 8 reached $74 million, the most expensive social-issues campaign in U.S. history and the most expensive campaign this year outside the race for the White House.
Activists on both sides of the issue saw the proposition as critical to building momentum for their causes.
"People believe in the institution of marriage," Frank Schubert, a co-manager of the Yes on 8 campaign, said after declaring victory early yesterday. "It's one institution that crosses ethnic divides, that crosses partisan divides.... People have stood up because they care about marriage and they care a great deal."
With almost all precincts reporting, election returns showed the proposition winning with 52 percent of the vote. It's estimated that 2 million to 3 million provisional and absentee ballots remained to be counted, but based on trends, the margin of support in favor of the initiative was secure.
Leaders of the No on 8 campaign said they were not ready to concede.
"Because Prop 8 involves the sensitive matter of individual rights, we believe it is important to wait until we receive further information about the outcome," said Geoff Kors, the director of Equality California.
Exit polls for The Associated Press found that Proposition 8 got critical support from black voters who flocked to the polls to support Sen. Barack Obama for president. About seven in 10 blacks voted in favor of the ban, Hispanics generally supported it, and whites were split.
Californians overwhelmingly passed a ban on same-sex marriage in 2000, but gay-rights supporters had hoped that public opinion on the matter had shifted enough for this year's proposition to be rejected.
"We pick ourselves up and trudge on," said Kate Kendell, the executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. "There has been enormous movement in favor 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."
The constitutional amendment limits marriage to heterosexual couples, nullifying the California Supreme Court decision that had made same-sex marriages legal in the state since June.
Similar bans had prevailed in 27 states before Tuesday's elections, but none was in California's situation -- with about 18,000 gay couples already married. The state attorney general, Jerry Brown, has said that those marriages will remain valid, although legal challenges are possible.
Despite intense disappointment, some newlyweds chose to look on the positive side, taking comfort that millions of Californians had voted to validate their relationships.
"I'm really OK," said Diana Correia of Berkeley, who married her partner of 18 years, Cynthia Correia, on Sunday in front of the couple's two children and 80 relatives and friends.
"I hope the marriage holds, but we are already married in our hearts, so nobody can take that away."
Jake Rowe and James Eslick were in the midst of getting married at Sacramento City Hall yesterday morning when someone from the clerk's office stopped the wedding. But not all county clerks stopped sanctioning same-sex marriages yesterday.
Grace Chavez, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Registrar's Office in Norwalk, said that weddings for gay couples were being performed in the first-floor chapel. But in San Francisco, County Clerk Karen Hong Lee said that gay couples were asked to wait until the office received guidance from state officials.
Kate Folmar, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Debra Bowen, said that initiatives typically take effect the day after an election, although the results from Tuesday's races will not be certified until Dec. 13.
Dana Simas, a spokeswoman for Brown, said that the California Attorney General's Office has yet to decide whether same-sex marriages conducted after Election Day would be valid.
Gay-rights legal groups filed a petition yesterday asking the Supreme Court to invalidate Proposition 8 on the grounds that voters did not have the authority to make such a dramatic change in state law without approval from the legislature. The court refused to hear a similar petition in June, when gay-rights activists tried to knock the proposition off the ballot.
Yesterday's vote reduces the number of states that allow gay marriage to one, though it will soon rise again to two.
A ruling by Massachusetts' highest court made same-sex marriage legal there in 2004. A ruling last month by the Connecticut Supreme Court will make gay marriage legal there beginning next week. All other states specifically forbid it except for New York, which recognizes same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, and Rhode Island, where state law is silent on the subject.
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