Update #2 11/8/08 - Same-sex marriage rowdies single out Mormons
Jennifer Roback Morse explains what it means and what it doesn't mean. Worth reading.
Update - The Family Research Council reports:
Not everyone was as jubilant about the gains for marriage as FRC and
our supporters. This morning, FOX News posted photo after photo of the
anti-family rioting in Los Angeles (where a majority of voters actually
voted "yes" on Proposition 8), Hollywood, Santa Monica, and San
Francisco. Hundreds of protestors spilled out into the street last
night, blocking traffic, and, in one incident, climbing atop a police
car. "...[A]bout 500
[demonstrators] gathered near CNN's Los Angeles bureau, where they were
seen banging on the doors and walls, causing the [L.A.] police
Department to
declare a tactical alert. ...Several others were arrested..." With
nearly all of the votes counted, Proposition 8 leads by more than a
half million
votes (52.5% to 47.5%). Even though there are an estimated three
million mail and provisional ballots, none of the local officials
expect the outcome
to change. Members of the "No on 8" campaign are shocked and
distressed, but San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (who famously declared
that "gay
marriage is here whether you like it or not!") said he is "hopeful" the
courts will overturn the people's will. To that effect, three separate
lawsuits have been filed in California courts, all challenging the
validity of Proposition 8. Once again, homosexual extremists are
turning to their
place of preference for creating public policy-the courts. The nation's
voice has long been a casualty of this powerful alliance between
judicial
activists and the radical Left. For years, liberals have used the
courts to impose their agenda on Americans when the people or
legislature refused.
On this issue, however, democracy has spoken. From every
corner of California, Florida, and Arizona, voters proved that marriage
crosses
demographic lines-even party lines, in some cases. The attachment to
marriage and its meaning is deeply rooted in the African-American,
Latino,
Asian, and white communities. And exit polling proved it. In the Golden
State, where Newsom is trying to invalidate voters' decision on
marriage,
Proposition 8 proved to be a moral mandate from every race, every sex,
and all income levels. Although minorities overwhelmingly supported
Barack
Obama, seven in 10 black voters and 53% of Hispanics propelled
Proposition 8 to victory. Men and women were equally supportive, as
were people aged
35 and above. Nor did it matter what the household income was. In a
survey of 2,240 voters, the richest and poorest of California were
separated in
their support for marriage by only one percentage point!
The
same trends continue in Arizona on Proposition 102. Both sexes voted
for
marriage (57% of men and 55% of women); Latinos and whites were equally
supportive (at 55% apiece); and even the generational gap was slight
(49% of
18-24-year-olds voted to preserve marriage, compared to 55-57% among
30-64-year-olds). Down in Florida, where Amendment 2 rocketed past the
60%
approval it needed, males and females were again equally supportive
(63% of men and 62% of women) and, in California-like fashion, the
support of
Latinos (64%) and blacks pushed the ban (71%) over the top. Even
Florida Republicans (83%), Democrats (47%), and Independents (56%)
combined their
support to prove that marriage is a non-partisan issue. In the state
where marriage needed them most, even a majority of young people voted
to
protect marriage (52% of 18-24-year-olds), providing the backing the
amendment needed to pass.
Protecting
marriage means so much to so
many Americans that people across the country gave more to the fight
for Proposition 8 than they ever had in the history of a social issues
campaign. In hard economic times, their sacrifices, so powerfully
illustrated in the story of the Patterson family, are what made this
victory possible. "On
Oct. 13... the Sacramento Bee ran a remarkable story about
Rick and Pam Patterson, a Mormon couple of modest means - he drives a
10-year-old Honda
Civic, she raises their five boys-who had withdrawn $50,000 from their
savings account and given it to the pro-8 campaign. 'It was a decision
we made
very prayerfully,' Pam Patterson, 48, told the Bee's Jennifer Garza. 'Was it an easy decision? No. But it was a clear decision, one that had so much
potential to benefit our children and their children.'