Reply #1: From what I've read, No on prop 8 didn't get across to minorities

[SemperEadem]

well enough that this issue wasn't about gay rights--it was about determining that one segment of the population didn't deserve equal rights, access and protections under the law by another segment of the population based upon a facet of their being--no different from skin color or country of origin.

The false argument that "gays and lesbians don't bother with anyone outside of their middle class lives, so I'm not going to bother to care about them..." is non sequitur. One struggle is no less painful or hard than another struggle when it comes to equal access under the law. Either all are created equal under the constitution in this country or no one is.

They needed to couch it to narrow minded African Americans in terms of the Dred Scott decision and what would have happened if one segment of the population decided that blacks didn't deserve freedom because they were only 3/5ths of a human being and were considered property--and that held through to this day? Or if the civil rights act failed in the 60's and they couldn't be hired for certain jobs or they had to give up their seat on a bus for one segment of the population or they had to step in the street to let one segment of the population walk by on the sidewalk; or they still had to go get their food from the back door of a restaurant--or couldn't marry outside their race.

They needed to couch it to Latinos in terms of being rounded up in the wee hours of the morning and forced onto buses to be carried across the border into Mexico and let out in the desert to fend for themselves because one segment of the population felt that you can't tell if they're citizens, they probably came here illegally and have no rights, so get rid of them all.

They didn't shut down the pimping of children--which would have been so easy considering the Catholic Church and the Mormon church's past history.

They brought a nerf bat to a gun fight and expected to win.

Obama's win had nothing to do with getting these closed minded assholes to change the way their religion has inculcated them for years to be fine with denying gays and lesbians their right to the legal protection and validation marriage. I hope they can successfully challenge the constitutionality of this proposition and overturn it; otherwise the constitution doesn't mean shit in this country.