By a vote of 52 in favor and 48 against Prop 8, the measure to constitutionally ban gay marriage in the state of California passes for a majority win.
Los Angeles turns out to have been the deciding factor for the narrow win for proponents of Proposition 8. LA county was expected to vote against the measure but in a surprising turn the vote went the other way. Why? The exit polls show that African Americans overwhelmingly voted by nearly a 2 to 1 margin to ban gays of having a constitutional right to marry. Those same voters overwhelmingly chose Barack Obama as their president of choice. Blacks have every right to feel proud and joyful of Obama’s win as do we all. This election will prove to be one of the most historic of all time. Hopefully it will also help break down the walls of separation for all.
However, a lot of gays feel cheated and rightfully so. An overwhelmingly majority of gays also voted for our country’s first African American president. The letdown? The majority of African Americans voted against gays by way of Proposition 8 leaving gays to say, “Gee, thanks… We support African Americans and they throw gays under the bus!”
Some gays are adamantly placing the blame on blacks for the loss. When are we going to learn that finger pointing doesn’t solve problems? Keep this up and it will only get worse.
Instead of losing respect for the black community because they voted against us 2 to 1, we should look at it as an opportunity that raises the questions: How do we reverse it? How do we get our message to them? How do we change their views?
African Americans will now play a major role in our rights at the voting level. We can embrace them or reject them. Friend or foe, it’s our choice. The ball has been thrown back in our court. What are we going to do with it?
We must take a long hard look at the data and what went down from every angle of Prop 8’s success. We can use that to our advantage. From it and our own mistakes we can learn what needs to be done to be victorious.
One thing is for sure, fighting amongst ourselves or even blaming others won’t accomplish anything except hatred and more bigotry which is exactly what we oppose.
But let’s realize that it’s not just blacks. It’s much more diverse, but religion plays even a bigger role in the root cause. In regards to blacks and religion, it is the whites in this country that are responsible for that. As mentioned before it goes back to the times of slavery when in most cases the bible was the only book slaves had to read. Their religious roots run deep. At the time it’s all they had to hold onto — It was hope.
The 2 to 1 vote by blacks for Prop 8 is only one of the reasons we lost the battle. There are many other factors as well. Like gays not registering to vote. Every gay Californian should have been registered and should have voted. Would it have made a difference? Who knows for sure but it most certainly could have. How do we get that message to them? No on 8 could have focused more on the grass roots effort, teaching and uniting instead of pouring all of its resources into raising more money. Yes, money is really important. But proponents for Prop 8 had huge congregations of church-goers pounding the pavement. That’s something we don’t have. How do we change that? If their is a will there is a way. It can be done.
For now, lets face the facts and admit defeat. Yes on 8 did better than No on 8. We can’t deny that now. Over $70 million poured in from both sides to campaign on Prop 8. It’s not all about the money all the time. It’s about bringing people together to fight for what they believe in — it’s grass roots. Unfortunately, we don’t have the numbers to do it on our own. We must embrace others and ask for their compassion. But before we can do that we must also organize with each other in a manner that’s acceptable and looked up to by society. We must all do our part.
Unite and teach!
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In time I suppose we’ll get over this. But I won’t forget it. The NAACP is dead to me. I will try to speak to the black community but until I feel support from them then I don’t care about them. You have a black president. You’re done, it’s over. You’ve got your civil rights and took mine away. So stay the F away from me for a while.
@JakiChan -
I hear you loud and clear.
I thought the NCAAP was totally against Prop 8 because it endorsed the No on 8 campaign. That is until I researched the matter and found that the President of the CA NCAAP provided services to No on 8 to the tune of $200,000 through a private company owned by the President. Apparently, there was no vote within NCAAP to support No on 8. Local CA chapters were never notified to vote no on Prop 8. There’s a lot of shaky stuff going on with this.
If this is all true then we were equally lied to by No on 8 by them leading us to believe we had the backing of NCAAP when it reality it may have just been a “favor” related to services provided by a private company that happens to be owned the CA NCAAP President. If so, that just sucks!
Time to call a spade a spade as they say. I have never in my life been racially motivated. But this is not acceptable. The black people didn’t stand for the white man oppressing him and we gay people sure as HELL not going to stand for the black man trying to play the white mans game. Enough is enough. We do need to access the blame where it is created. We are angry and we will NOT take it. Until you give rights to all do NOT expect any from us!
@get a clue -
I agree with you 100% what I don’t agree with is to hate back (not saying you said to hate). Sure we need to place blame where it belongs and take action against it. Anger is a good motivator for action. But that action shouldn’t be accomplished by way of hate or bigotry or else we’re no better than those against us. That’s my point of view.
waaah waaah waah quit ur crying n stop acting like victims. People voted for what they believed in… dont use the color of skin as a reason for blame. tsk!
@thats hilarious -
NO! It is not hilarious. YES! Gays are victims of hate and bigotry and we all know it including YOU.
“don’t use the color of skin as a reason for blame”
The same can be said back to you… Don’t use sexual orientation as reason to discriminate or force your beliefs on another via the constitution. That in itself is against the constitution of the United States of America, yet California narrowly votes to write it in their own. It’s sick!
If you’re going to post here, then you need to use a little common sense. People are pissed off about this and they have every right to be. Their feelings are justified but hating people back is not and that includes you.
Blame needs to be put where it belongs, but reactions to it need to be progressive not digressive. Realize this article only covers one of the many reasons Prop 8 passed. It is not just blacks but they were a huge part of it. So was the No on 8 campaign. Honestly their ads sucked for the most part. The mayor of San Francisco didn’t do enough either and his early excitement of the supreme court ruling with his “shove it your face” celebration didn’t help either. There are tons of blame to go around.
WTF!!!
Are you people serious? Blaming blacks for your loss! That is just stupid, whiny and very hypocritical. If you want rights you have to earn them. So far you haven’t earned a damn thing and it is because of behavior like this. STFU!!! At least until you can get it together and act like ADULTS! Get my drift?
@charles -
Yes, I get your drift and I agree to some degree. We should all act like adults including yourself.
No one should have earn their basic human rights or the right to love another human being. They should also not have earn their right to have that love publicly acknowledged and recieve the same benefits as everyone else.
People earn privileges, not rights!
I think your post has the more important point slightly buried in it.
Religion is the main cause of heterosexist hate.
@libhomo -
Yes, you are absolutely correct religion is the root cause of all bigotry against homosexuals. However I intentionally did not emphasize religion for obvious reasons – Those being the post is focused on a specific group of people and the idea of tackling religion at it’s source would entail huge rebellious marches against churches for which we would be ostracized even more as social outcasts. I think eventually religious systems have to figure out on their own the Bible is wrong on homosexuality. Of course a little coaxing along the way doesn’t hurt.
This comment comes from lisabahamas on another blog. While I could not successfully contact the commenter I found it very relative.