As Barack Obama makes history by becoming America's first African-American president, the election took other more conservative turns. Same-sex marriage bans were passed in California, Florida, and Arizona. Arkansas also passed a measure that would bar homosexual couples from adopting children. (South Dakota did however reject an abortion ban for the second time in two years, 55 to 45.) It was precisely the black and Hispanic voters coming out to vote for Obama, who supported the bans on same-sex marriage. More specifically, the New York Times has reported that 70% of black voters in California supported the ban. California has been marrying couples since June. Now, the marriages will stop, but couples and the city of San Francisco (as well as other cities) have filed lawsuits to challenge the bans (particularly the famous Proposition 8). One of the legal questions is the status of marriages, which have been conducted since June. The San Francisco Chronicle has reported that "sponsors of Proposition 8 say the measure was intended to invalidate those marriages" but 18,000 couples have been married there already since the June 16 California Court ruling. An interesting question is whether Proposition 8 is an "amendment' or a complete revision of the Constitution and its basic provisions. Bob Egelko wrote for the Chronicle, therefore, that "the plaintiffs argued that the measure offends constitutional principles by taking important rights away from a historically persecuted minority , gays and lesbians , while stripping judges of their power to protect that group." In a very expensive election year, it has also been reported that over 73 million was spent on building support for the ban. In fact, the support for the ban has been reported to be based on "deep religious feelings" particularly among ethnic minorities. It was remarkable to see that Proposition 8 had significantly more support than John McCain. In any case, election day turned out to be a victory for both conservatives and liberals. Those people caught in the middle , African-American gay couples (for example) probably don't know quite what to think about the country's direction. In sum, thirty states have passed constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.
