Quoted from Kevin March

From what I understand, this headline should read..."California Voters Pass Ban on Gay Marriage...again."

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Homosexuals seek to overturn marriage amendment
Associated Press - 11/6/2008 7:40:00 AM
LOS ANGELES - Homosexuals and their supporters in California are vowing to fight the passage of a state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman.

Even as the last votes were being counted, the American Civil Liberties Union and other opponents of Proposition 8 filed a challenge with the state Supreme Court. They contended that it cannot be used to undermine one group's access to rights enjoyed by other citizens. (Read earlier story: "Major pro-family victory in California")

The city attorneys in Los Angeles and San Francisco also filed a request with the Supreme Court to invalidate the amendment's approval, arguing that it deprives homosexuals of constitutional rights.

This amendment became necessary after the California Supreme Court -- by a 4-to-3 decision last summer -- ruled that an earlier state referendum protecting traditional marriage was illegal.

Proposition 8, which appeared on Tuesday ballot and passed with 52 percent of the vote, overrides that court ruling by defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Thirty states now have adopted such measures, but the California vote marks the first time a state took away same-sex "marriage" after it had been legalized.

Exit polls on Tuesday revealed dramatic demographic gaps in the homosexual-marriage vote. While about six in 10 voters under 30 opposed the ban, about the same proportion of those 65 and older supported it. There were sharp racial discrepancies as well. Even as black voters overwhelmingly backed Barack Obama -- a homosexual-rights supporter -- in the presidential race, about seven in 10 of them voted against same-sex marriage, compared with about half of white voters.

Denise Fernandez, a 57-year-old black woman from Sacramento, said she voted for Obama and Proposition 8. "I believe a Christian is held accountable," she said.

Traditional marriage amendments also passed on Tuesday in Arizona and Florida, with 57 percent and 62 percent support, respectively, while Arkansas voters approved a measure aimed at homosexuals that bars unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents.

Massachusetts and Connecticut are now the only states to allow same-sex marriage.

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Calif. court weighs ban on same-sex marriage
The Associated Press

    SAN FRANCISCO — As thousands of demonstrators chanted slogans and waved placards outside, California’s highest court on Thursday skeptically grilled lawyers seeking to overturn the state’s ban on gay marriage.
    Attorneys for same-sex couples argued the public’s right to change the constitution doesn’t extend to depriving an unpopular minority of the right to wed.
    But questions and statements from the justices indicated a wariness to override what Associated Justice Joyce Kennard called the people’s “very, very broad, wellestablished” authority to amend the state’s governing framework at the ballot box.
    “What I am picking up from the oral arguments is that this court should willy-nilly disregard the will of the people,” said Kennard, who just 10 months ago voted that prohibiting same-sex marriages violated the civil rights of gays. “The people established the constitution; as judges, our power is very limited.”
    The justices heard three hours of arguments on the gay marriage ban, known as Proposition 8, which was approved in November with 52 percent of the vote. It effectively reversed a 4-3 Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage 4 1 /2 months before the election.
    Gay rights advocates argued the proposition is such a sweeping change to the constitution’s equal protection clause that it was a constitutional revision, not just an amendment.
    A revision requires legislative approval before it lands on the ballot.
    Chief Justice Ron George, who also ruled last year to strike down a pair of laws that limited marriage to a man and a woman, echoed Kennard’s qualms about denying the public its voice.
    George noted that the state constitution has been amended at least 500 times compared with the 27 times the U.S. Constitution has been altered, and said it was up to the Legislature or voters — not the court — to make the process more difficult.
    “It seems what you are saying is, it is just too easy to amend the California Constitution,” George told Raymond Marshall, an attorney representing the NAACP and other civil rights groups trying to overturn the ban. “Maybe the solution has to be a political one.”
    Minutes into Thursday’s proceedings, the justices peppered a lawyer representing unwed same sex couples with tough questions over how the 14 words of Proposition 8 represent a denial of fundamental rights when same-sex couples still have the legal benefi ts of..................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00203