Blacks, Hispanics nixed gay marriage

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By Cheryl Wetzstein and Jennifer Harper

The record turnout of black and Hispanic voters played a key role in the victory of President-elect Barack Obama, but in California that same racial and ethnic factor also was instrumental in the passage of Proposition 8, a ballot measure that declares marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

When the voting was over, Proposition 8 had won in 42 of 58 counties in California and was passed by 52 percent to 48 percent.

But while Mr. Obama opposed the measure to reverse a California Supreme Court decision that declared gay marriage a right, his loyalists saved it, marshalling a victory for the traditional, conservative view of marriage.

"Really, Hispanic and black voters in California passed Proposition 8," said Andrew Pugno, general counsel of ProtectMarriage.com, which backed the amendment.

"Inner-city black neighborhoods voted stronger for Prop. 8 than the Republican suburbs. An amazing analysis," Mr. Pugno continued.

Blacks voted 70 percent in favor of Proposition 8, and slightly more than half the Hispanic voters backed the measure, according to exit polls released by the National Election Pool.

And those voters were adamant.

"We shouldn't do anything to jeopardize the future of our family and our children," said Frederick K.C. Rice, an elder with the Crenshaw Christian Center in Los Angeles, which joined a thousand other black and Hispanic congregations with about 3 million followers in public support of Proposition 8.

"Religion trumps politics," noted pollster Mark DiCamillo of the California-based Field Research Corp.

But the vote doesn't end the matter, gay rights advocates say.