With an admixture of sadness

Despite the general good news with political races around the nation, gay-related ballot initiatives generally came down anti-gay.

In Arizona, the same-sex marriage ban appears to be passing. With 99% of precincts reporting, the results were 56% to 44%. This initiative is currently projected to win; this is an initiative that needed 50% plus one vote  pass — the state itself was called for Obama.

In Arkansas, the ban on gay and lesbian couples adopting children appears to be passing. With 96% of precincts reporting, the results were 57% to 43%. As of this moment, this initiative has been called; this was an initiative that needed 50% plus one vote  pass — the state itself was called for McCain.

In Florida, the same-sex marriage ban appears to be passing. With 99% of precincts reporting, the results were 62% to 38%. As of this moment, this initiative has been called; this was a constitutional amendment that needed 60% of the votes to pass — the state itself was called for Obama.

And in California, it appears that Prop 8, enshrining marriage discrimination into the state constitution, has passed, 52-48%.

Pam points out this juxtaposition (emphasis mine):

Here in my  odd world of California, there is a weird comparison of initiatives between California initiatives can be made between Propositions 2 and 8.

Proposition 2 is an initiative that was described in the initiative as follows:

 

The purpose of this Act is to prohibit the cruel confinement of farm animals in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs.

So in my mind, perhaps the saddest commentary on “liberal” Californians sense of equality and fairness is to say that in my home state where, to this point, 63.3% of its voters found the mistreatment of farm animals something worthy of being legislated against, and 52.8% of voters believed eliminating the fundamental right of gays and lesbians to marry worthy of a state constitutional amendment.

Whether or not Proposition 8 ends up being defeated or being approved by California voters, one way to look at the Prop 8 vote is in light of the Proposition 2 vote. And that is that a larger percentage of Californians are against mistreating farm animals in hoow these animals are caged than are against mistreating gay and lesbian human beings by eliminating their fundamental marriage rights. Put simply, If one evaluates by the votes cast and the percentages of the votes cast, the rights of farm animals appear to be more important to Californians than the rights of gay and lesbian human beings.

That’s really sad.