Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

In the afterglow of the euphoria surrounding the transformational election of America’s first African-American president, the passing of proposition 8 amending the California constitution to ban gay marriage was like having a gatecrasher at the party, a particularly offensive and obnoxious one at that.

In California, Obama trounced McCain  by 61% of the vote to 37%. Voter turnout broke records, with almost 80% of eligible voters casting ballots.  It seems like an anomaly that a liberal democrat could win the election by almost a 2-1 margin, but that a socially conservative measure on the same ballot could pass. However, the No on 8 campaign was always going to face an uphill battle, especially with a high voter turnout. The excitement generated by the Obama candidacy was a double edged sword, bringing out voters in droves,  including large numbers of ethnic minorities, who are considered liberal on economic issues and the war in Iraq, but social conservatives with regard to gay rights and abortion(which is why prop 4 – parental notification on abortion -may also pass).

It is an unfortunate commentary on California voters that the Yes on 8 campaign was able to successfully disguise it’s true agenda, to enshrine its view that homosexuality is immoral, into law, by using misdirection and obfuscation and appealing to the basest instincts of religious conservatives. An excellent LA Times editorial on prop 8 ran the day before the election, when it would have been more effective if published earlier.

The fact remains that America still suffers from a puritan hangover to the bemusement and befuddlement of Europeans and the rest of the world. Barack Obama’s election is a ray of hope that attitudes, even those which appear entrenched and are seemingly intractable,  can eventually change.