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California passes Prop. 8, a landmark pro-family win
November 10, 2008
By Michael Foust
California voters Nov. 4 overruled the state Supreme Court's ruling legalizing "gay marriage," and in the process handed the nationwide pro-family movement one of its most significant victories ever.
With 95 percent of results tabulated, Proposition 8 — a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman — led by 52-48 percent and a margin of 400,000 votes out of nearly 10 million cast.
The amendment reverses the high court's landmark May decision and serves as the biggest setback yet for homosexual activists in their goal of legalizing "gay marriage" nation-wide.
It is the first time that voters in a state have overturned a court's decision on the issue. The amendment reads, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
"When one looks at the demographics of California, if traditional marriage can win in California, it can win in any of the 50 states when it's put to a vote of the people," Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told Baptist Press.
The victory was but one of four "gay rights" ballot initiatives where conservatives were victorious. Florida adopted a marriage amendment — passing it 62-38 percent and surpassing the necessary 60 percent supermajority — while Arizona passed its own marriage amendment, 56-44 percent, two years after citizens there had become the first state to defeat an amendment.
Three-fifths (30) of the states now have adopted a marriage amendment.
Meanwhile, a ballot initiative in Arkansas prohibiting adoptions by cohabitating heterosexual and homosexual couples passed, 57-43 percent.
The only loss of the night for conservatives pertaining to "gay rights" came in Connecticut, where voters by a margin of 59-41 percent rejected a once-every-two-decades question asking whether a constitutional convention should be held. Conservatives had hoped to use the convention to legalize direct initiative in the state and then to gather enough signatures to place a marriage amendment on the ballot. (BP)
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