In 2008, how was it possible that gay marriage ban was voted in California?

19 comments

1. I mean, it was just a different time. Polling showed that the majority of Californians opposed same-sex marriage until about 2010.

   There was a lot of support among Black churches and among Latino communities that would otherwise vote liberal.

2. The first thing to realize is that California is not necessarily as liberal as you might believe. It’s a very big state, with many conservative regions. But also, there was a major push by religious groups, especially the Mormon Church, to get voters interested in banning gay marriage.

   While you might look back at it today and imagine it being impossible to get a gay marriage ban passed, at the time, it was a close race and the amount of anti-gay activism was high.

3. there has been a very dramatic culture shift in the last decade. Turnout was close to 80% so it certainly can’t be attributed to only a few people voting.

4. California is the only state in the nation to vote to ban same sex marriage **twice**

   As others pointed out, California is a much more politically diverse state than many give it credit for. There’s groups of people within California that oppose SSM. And also its just part of the problem with referendums like this, where the most motivated party will turn out to vote and those who aren’t as motivated won’t.

5. Things were different 14 years ago and public opinion has shifted.

6. Look up how the Mormon church was involved. They invested millions to ensure it was that way.

7. California has a lot of people who are very against such things, though it usually votes for more blue ideologies. If you look at 2020 eleiction, you see that the counties are pretty divided on red vs blue voting, but what helps is most people live on the coast and vote blue. So though there is a split divide across countries, most individual people are voting blue.

   But if people don’t turn up to vote, and red voters tend to have a higher voter turnout, then such issues get voted down on.

   [https://www.kcra.com/article/california-president-election-history/34452869](https://www.kcra.com/article/california-president-election-history/34452869)

8. The Mormon church campaigned aggressively in favor of Prop 8. A particularly effective TV ad showed a little girl coming home from school, telling her parents that they read a story in class about “a prince marrying a prince.” Many voters didn’t understand that gay marriages were already occurring in California, and the world hadn’t ended as a result— so a “no” on the proposed ban would just mean continuation of status quo, not sweeping changes to curriculum in support of some kind of homosexual agenda. But they were cowed into voting “yes” by fearmongering ads.

   It also coincided with Obama’s first-term election, which drew an unprecedented number of minority voters, who, at least in California, are disproportionately Catholic.

9. The number one reason was Domestic Partnerships. The big thing that people forget is that Domestic Partnership was legal in California starting in 1999. In fact, California was the first state in the nation to have Domestic Partnership for same-sex couples, and it was very popular among Californians even in 1999. That was huge, because same sex couples already had the legal protections of marriage without the word. Separate, but equal in a way. So you had many people who were on the fence about same sex marriage who voted against it on the belief that they could “preserve” the religious meaning of the word without harming the LGBTQ community.

   I remember many conversations with non-religious people who considered themselves allies of the gay community voting against same-sex marriage because they felt it would upset the religious communities without actually benefiting the gay community. They didn’t see that the word “marriage” DID matter, and that “separate, but equal” isn’t equal.

   Add to that the ads paid for by the Mormon Church, and the fact that things were less progressive then, and you get the result you saw in 2008. If there wasn’t already Domestic Partnership, same-sex marriage would have stood a better chance.

10. I think people underestimate just how massive the Overton window shifted on gay marriage recently. 20 years ago, it was illegal in every state, and 60% of the population wanted it to stay that way. Gay sex was still illegal in 14 states and several territories—that wouldn’t be overturned until the 2003 Supreme Court case *Lawrence v. Texas*. The Defense of Marriage Act was still on the books, and there was a movement to pass a Constitutional amendment legally defining marriage as between a man and a woman—it got a simple majority in Congress, but didn’t clear the required 2/3 threshold to pass. Even opponents to the amendment, like then-Senator [Hillary Clinton](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I1-r1YgK9I), felt marriage should stay “a sacred bond between a man and a woman.” The only federal politician consistently advocating for legal gay marriage at the time was Bernie Sanders, with the runner-up being Dick Cheney (who felt it should be on a state-by-state basis).

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12. Gay marriage is not a settled belief in the same way that abortion is not a settled belief. You’re watching a wild swinging of the pendulum in our culture. Don’t act surprised when you see a significant amount of people disagree with gay marriage. Sexuality has a diversity of belief and opinions. But only one opinion gets filtered and published through Hollywood. It sets up a false sense of security, as if everyone thinks one certain way. It’s called social engineering.

13. Latinos in California are a big force and they skew conservative on quite a few matters outside of ethic issues.

14. Because at the time the people getting voted in (and revoted in) thought that is what the people voting them in wanted.

15. Everyone knows about the liberal areas of California but what they always forget or are unaware oe is that’s primarily in the Southern parts of the state. From central California to northern California you have a lot of rural farm county. And there are a lot of conservatives that live in those areas. It’s a very big state with a very diverse population when it comes to the political spectrum.

16. You could easily call someone a f * g in 2008 (even if they were not gay, *especially* then) and get away with it in humor. Try doing that now.

    There has been an exceptional culture shift in last decade.

17. Gay marriage basically speed ran from fringe to mainstream in about 10 years.

18. It was 2008. A lot has changed in a relatively short amount of time.

19. Because it was 2008 lol