The Connecticut Yankee stands strong

Voters in Florida and Arizona handidly decided to prohibit gay marriage yesterday and Arkansas denied adoption rights to any "unmarried couple," which proponents openly touted was specifically aimed at Gay and Lesbian couples.

California fell in possibly the worst defeat for Gay Rights Advocates in a tightly contested ballot measure that saw the electorate closely divided 52%-42%. Opponents of the measure are disheartened and not willing to concede though they face seemingly insurmountable odds with the 5% still outstanding. And the 18,000 couples already married in the Bear Republic are now worried about the status of their marriages (the language of Proposition 8 didn't include language for or against marriages already performed). Opponents of the measure were significantly out spent and organized by the Mormon Church and a wealthy Mormon Financier. And while rights advocates are not conceding just yet they are prepping to regroup and hope to try and reverse the measure in another decade.

Perhaps while they do this they can take heart from the east. With all of these defeats there was one victory last night in Connecticut. The Connecticut Yankees defeated a measure to call for a Constitutional Convention by an overwhelming margin of 18 points. The local Churches and Catholic Conference had thrown lots of time and measure into promoting the convention as a way to prohibit gay marriages and received a resounding no to such efforts. There's still hope yet.

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