They should occupy central Salt Lake City and refuse to move. Seriously. Million fag march on SLC. Take it to the people who bankrolled the bullshit.

What about the people who actually voted for Prop 8? In the end, especially regarding an issue like gay marriage, it's not who bankrolled whom and how much; it's the citizen, with their prejudice, voting. This battle will be won at the dinner table, at recess, on the bus, in the stands, at parties, in the office and, finally, in the voting booth.

So WeHo's finest chose to protest to the...other people in West Hollywood. Well, at least they're a stone's throw from the Abbey for drinks after.

As serious and dire as this result is, I can't stop giggling at the idea of the MORMONS lecturing us about the proper forms of "marriage." (Now where did I put my magic underpants?)

It's so sad. As the Obamahigh tapers off, the sick-to-the-stomach feeling over prop 8 gets harder to ignore.

WTO re-enactment?

Take heart, Washington: the Legislature is back to work on equality here at home and I'm fairly certain they're tying up the loose ends in terms of legislating against civil rights, from what I understand of the future path of equality in Washington.

oh that is so awesome. yes we can.

violet @ 5,

I've been feeling the same way; so overjoyed and relieved by Obama's victory yet so sickened and disgusted by the ballot initiatives passed in California, Arkansas, Arizona and Florida.

The Arkansas one bans adoption and foster parenting by all unmarried couples, gay and straight, and the Florida one bans even civil unions or any kind of benefits. It's just so sadistic and sick.

Living in the Seattle Reality Bubble, it's sometimes really easy to forget that there are tons of people, most of our fellow Americans in fact, who will do anything, say anything and pay anything to destroy us and our families. Yes, they hate us that much.

I hope younger Americans emigrate to Canada or Europe so that they can have better lives with sane, decent people.

@3: Somehow, LA and Orange counties actually swung in favor of Prop 8. Us San Francisco queers did our part canvassing in Alameda and Santa Clara counties, but... well, LA's massive population in comparison to us means that LA has far more impact than SF. So, not to point fingers or anything, but if LA was going to vote No it would've been WeHo's doing.

@8:

Holy crap, I didn't know that the Arkansas one banned adoption. That's so twisted.

Yeah, all of it is nauseating. I gotta admit, it is harder for me to take from the "blue states", though, just because you know that people who voted for Obama also voted to discriminate against queers. That's an extra-bitter pill.

Speaking of bubbles... It ain't all that surprising that Obama voters also voted for Prop. 8 -- Obama's about as mainstream as they come and the mainstream is still the mainstream.

@11: Proud progressive CA!

Pareene @ Gawker nailed it:

Changed America Still Hates the Gays

http://gawker.com/5077149/changed-america-still-hates-the-gays

I hope to see some thoughtful, in-depth reporting from somewhere on the many facets of this debacle. A graphic posted by Dan shows polling with No on 8 running comfortably ahead until late September, when the Mormons got their [late] million signs from Asia somewhere and the great LDS logistics machine rolled them out fast. Poll lines cross and then cross again just before the election, leading to a false sense of security.

The No on 8 bunch appear to have been caught flat-footed. Likely contributing aspects beyond the Mormons and their $$$$, either in my mind or that I've seen mentioned in scattered places elsewhere:

1) Confusion over what yes and no votes meant. Even Willie Brown, after speaking about the importance of marriage rights for gays, erroneously told people to vote "Yes on 8." The Mormon Yes-on-8 signs showed a jump-for-joy pair of stick figures that looked like a same-sex couple (with kids) from more than 20 feet away, and the wording "Protect Marriage" could have easily been construed by not-clued-in voters as meaning "protect the marriage rights already granted by the Supreme Court ruling." I Slog-Tipped this with photos, but it wasn't picked up.

2) Socially-conservative blacks already motivated to turn out for Obama who voted Yes on 8. I know they will, in time, come to recognize the magnitude of this injustice.

3) Overconfidence (and laziness) by gays who were caught up in the giddy excitement of this election and just couldn't conceive of our being slammed in the midst of all this euphoria. Comments in another post-election Prop 8 post mentioned gays who refused No on 8 signs because they "didn't want to get involved." And I bet I could have found a few thousand hedonistic fags in the bars and on the beaches of my old stomping grounds of San Diego who couldn't be bothered to vote at all.

Go WeHo--no better place for the flashpoint of the next revolution.

Would you guys help me put together a Proposition to Ban Straight Marriage?

Seriously, as someone who's been there and left, it's the most oppressive and inhumane social contract left in our society -- as terrible as slavery.

I say ban all civil marriage now!

You want to get married? Go to Mass or CT and get married. Then at the right time, get on the bus, insist you sit at the front, when they tell you to get off the bus (That's the current situation, Gay Americans don't EVEN get to sit on the bus let alone in the back of it) tell them to fuck off and sue them, BUT BUT please talk to Lambda Legal first, you just might ruin it for every Gay Citizen if you do it wrong.

After a rally of surprisingly pointed speeches (direct blame was laid on Mormons and homo discrimination from ethnic minorities) a big chunk of the crowd moved up to block traffic on the Sunset Strip. Tomorrow's protest at a West LA Mormon temple should be big (there were easily 5,000 at this one ), and there are others scheduled around town this week.

Traffic is still blocked on Santa Monica, and now marchers are moving west...

Well, that's classy. Don't like the result of the vote? Let's all go block traffic! (In West Hollywood, of all places -- I mean, who needs convincing there?)

@13

Reading . . .UNMARRIED STRAIGHT PEOPLE CAN'T BE FOSTER PARENTS?!

What the fucking fuck were they thinking? Gays, sure, can't win for losing. . . but displaced/unwanted kids in Arkansas were the real losers in that one.

Chronos, that's because Orange County on its own is somehow more red than blue.

I learned this a few weeks ago, and it shocked the crap out of me.

Here's the good news: President-elect Obama may have the chance to put as many as four justices on the US Supreme Court. Then, all this anti-gay initiative shit will be over.

Two supreme court justices, one confirmed and one under speculation to quit on or shortly after inauguration day.

We got this.

I was at this protest. It was not about protesting city hall, or weho businesses. Both were firmly on our side. It was about bringing a community of Very Angry Faggots together to heal and get some direction. The blocked cars were mostly honking in full support, giving everyone thumbs-up.

In terms of protesting, well: There will be a protest at 2pm on Thursday outside the Mormon Temple in Westwood.

The LDS church is now the target of a lot of queer wrath, and they may have some hell to pay.

@18 Just got back from the rally/march. This was held in WeHo in order to "rally the troops" for tomorrow's 2pm protest at the Mormon temple. While traffic was stalled, every car that I passed was honking and waving in support. People were high-5ing out the windows as the protested marched past. What else are we supposed to do if we don't like the result of the vote?? I think protests should be expected whenever a minority has rights taken away by a majority.

Two supreme court justices, one confirmed and one under speculation to quit on or shortly after inauguration day.

I doubt they're the conservative ones though...so it'll be a wash.

Brad DeLong is suggesting that the new democratic congress should get around to impeaching the justices who voted to install Bush in 2000. He thinks the republicans might be convinced to go along since in a new democratic majority they won't want the precedent of The Party With The Most Justices Wins to stand.

Just got back from the protest, I'm exhausted, but I've never felt as motivated nor as hopeful as i do tonight. EQUALITY NOW

Before this debacle started Prop 8 opponents should have realized the stupidity of a simple majority election result being sufficient to amend a constitution.

This guarantees that minority rights will always be subject to the whim of the majority.

Stupid.

Never quit. Never stop fighting. Never give in to bigots. Resist religious persecution of gays in every and any way. Obama's election is proof you can achieve equality if you never quit trying. Fuck religionists. They have always perpetrated evil. Strengthen secular government!

It's great to see WeHo angry and mobilized like this.

But it would have been a lot more helpful A MONTH AGO...

...just like any other major sense of mobilization and organization against Prop 8 in California would have helped.

There was some, but I hear from everybody anti-8 in California that the anti-8 sentiment was just too little too late and many just assumed it would fail.

GRRRRRRRRRR.

Also someone should tell Gavin Newsom to STFU regarding gay issue initiatives. He's *right*, but everything that comes out of his mouth screams "pfff, like you can stop us? Neener neener neener", which is unfortunately a common allergen amongst Californians.

@29 It was a complete failure of the No on 8 leadership, who were all replaced three weeks before the election because they had turned a 17-19 point lead into a several point loss.

What happened under the new leadership in the last three weeks? The actual campaign. That's when the money, the commercials, everything happened -- for the first time.

No on 8 leaders sat on their asses all summer long and let the Mormons and their thugs frame the issue. When competent people took their place, it was too late. I don't blame the Mormons or even California voters for passing 8, I blame the LGBT leaders who let it happen.

I'm with Emma's Bee -- why can you change the state constitution with a simple majority? It should be two-thirds, or at least 60%. A simple majority shouldn't be enough to take away a minority's rights.

When the decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario that ruled that gay marriage was protected under the Canadian constitution was released, the support for gay marriage in Canada was about 48% nationally.

Significant, but not yet a majority. In other words, California numbers.

In the months that followed in Canada, the numbers of support for gay marriage in Canada ultimately rose to the high 50s and the issue has gone away from the public Agenda. The struggle is over up here.

Still, initially, Canadians were not much different on this than Californians.

Is that reason for hope? A little, perhaps. But you can't stick your head in the sand on this issue. The hard demographic data underlying the resistance in America to gay marriage is different than it was in Canada and, accordingly, it's a very challenging struggle.

In Canada, only 8% of Canadians self-identify as conservative Christian or evangelical Christian, whereas 35% of Americans will self-identify under that label if asked the same question.

That is the fundamental difference between liberal Canada and conservative America. That 27% difference explains virtually every gap on social issues that exists between the two countries.

But it's worse than that. Because amon non-evangelical sraights, America has another difference with Canada. A much larger African-American population that for cultural reasons is 70% resistant to gay marriage.

This is a grossly disproportionate resistance among one single racial group. But the support among others is at a high enough level - 48% - that black America is the clearest path to victory for popular for gay marriage in liberal American states.

There is much work to do.

The Prop 8 result is hard to swallow for most American gays and lesbians. But the truth is simple: the public is simply not there yet. You have over-reached.

This is going to take more work and more time.

The struggle needs personal stories and the unrelenting humanization of gays and lesbians on TV screens at every turn. It needs tears and battered faces of GLBs - to shame straight America, magnify their guilt, and persuade them that the fear is unnecessary.

And it needs black spokesmen and women. And it needs them badly.

There is much work to do.

Voters must see gays and lesbians walking hand in hand - with their children wherever possible - looking like average straight Americans.

Urban gay culture, especially the public face of Big City gay culture, does not frequently LOOK like straight America on TV. The unfiltered truth is not the face that needs to be on TV screens to win this fight,soonest.

Politics is about salesmanship. And frankly, the GLB community is not doing what it needs to do to sell gay marriage.

Act Up style sit-ins aren't going to do it - and Stonewall won't either. You need peaceful resistance and quiet bravery in the face of horrendous prejudice - and seize upon moments of shame. Tears need to be caught on camera and replayed again and again - and again.

You need the TV equivalent of hoses in Birmingham. You need them on YouTube and you need them now.

This struggle needs more work; it needs more activism aimed at the hearts and minds of most straight Americans, particularly black Americans. The black community is the most important target, because right now -that's the demographic most resistant to support - and which is paradoxically most vulnerable to moral suasion.

They must be made to see the struggle for gay rights as the moral equivalent of the Civil Rights era. That struggle is vital - and from my perspective, it is not being waged in Gay America very smartly.

Until that struggle is won - constitutional bans will continue. Change the attitudes of black America - make friends of your enemies - and you will prevail.

It's that simple. There is much work to do.