Nation watches as a divided California prepares to decide on same-sex marriage

Supporters and opponents have mounted a costly campaign over Proposition 8, which would amend state Constitution to ban gay marriage.
By Jessica Garrison
1:34 PM PST, November 4, 2008

After the most expensive campaign in state history over a social issue, Californians began voting Tuesday on the divisive and deeply emotional issue of same-sex marriage.

Proposition 8, which would amend the California Constitution to ban gay marriage, has been extremely close in recent polling, with the Field Poll last week showing 49% against and 44% in favor of the measure, with 7% undecided.

Proposition 8: Your guide to the gay... Tracking the moneyThat deep divide was reflected at polling places throughout Southern California.

Colleen Cross, 53, principal of Garden Grove High School, said that in addition to voting for the presidential ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin she was eager to vote for Proposition 8.

"I'm conservative, and family values are important to me. I see the country taking a real liberal swing and it scares me to death," said Cross. "The moral center has moved so far left that I can hardly recognize my country anymore," she said.

Mark Lescroart, a neuroscience grad student at USC, went to his Silver Lake polling place this morning to vote for Barack Obama and against Proposition 8, which he called "a basic civil rights issue."

"I am a little bit sad it even got on the ballot in the first place," he said.

Along with the presidential race, the fight over gay marriage is among nation's most closely watched contests. Volunteers from around the country have staffed phone banks, and campaign contributions have come from every state in the nation to the "no" campaign, and every state but Vermont to the "yes" side.

The two sides raised nearly $74 million and blanketed the airwaves for weeks with expensive television and radio commercials.

The battle has also been waged on street corners and front lawns, from the pulpits of churches and synagogues and -- unusual for a fight over a social issue -- in the boardrooms of many of the state's largest corporations.

Most of the state's highest-profile political leaders -- including both U.S. senators and the mayors of San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles -- along with the editorial pages of most major newspapers, have opposed the measure. PG&E, Apple and other companies contributed money to fight the proposition, and the heads of Silicon Valley companies including Google and Yahoo took out a newspaper ad opposing it.

Many argued, as former President Bill Clinton did in a taped call to millions of registered voters in the days before the election, that the measure was discriminatory because it would strip rights from gay couples and treat them differently from heterosexual couples.

"If I know one thing about California, I know that is not what you're about. That is not what America is about. Please vote "no" on 8. It's unfair and it's wrong," Clinton said.

At some polling places Tuesday, Proposition 8 opponents stood by handing out cards to voters. "The polls show there are still about 10% of our voters who are confused about which is yes and which is no," said a volunteer at a polling place near Pico and Fairfax. "That could make a difference."

On the other side have been an array of conservative organizations, including the Knights of Columbus, Focus on the Family and the American Family Assn., along with tens of thousands of small donors, including many who responded to urging from Mormon, Catholic and evangelical clergy. An early October filing by the "yes" campaign reported so many contributions that the secretary of state's campaign finance website crashed.

Proponents also organized a massive grass-roots effort. Campaign officials said they distributed more than 1.1 million lawn signs for Proposition 8 -- although an effort to stage a massive, simultaneous lawn-sign planting in late September failed after production problems in China delayed hundreds of thousands of signs.

For weeks before the election, thousands of volunteers also gathered on street corners around the state waving "Yes on 8" banners -- often squaring off against "No on 8" volunteers on opposite corners.

Research and polling showed that many voters were against gay marriage, but afraid that saying so would make them seem "discriminatory" or "not cool," said Jeff Flint, a campaign strategist for Proposition 8, so proponents hoped to show them they were not alone.

Perhaps more powerfully, the Proposition 8 campaign also seized on the issue of education, arguing in a series of advertisements and mailers that children would be subjected to a pro-gay curriculum if the measure was not approved.

"Mom, guess what I learned in school today?" a little girl said in one spot. "I learned how a prince married a prince."

As the girl's mother made a horrified face, a voice-over said: "Think it can't happen? It's already happened. . . . Teaching about gay marriage will happen unless we pass Proposition 8."

The "no" side countered with ads that included state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell saying the proposition had nothing to do with schools, and that "schools aren't required to teach anything about marriage."

At polling places Tuesday, people on both sides of the issue said they thought about children when deciding how to vote.

First-time voter Mike Johnson, 22, said at his Baldwin Hills precinct that he's voting for Obama but yes on Proposition 8, in part because of "when I have kids," he said. "If it's not right in the Bible, it's not right in society."

In South Pasadena, bankruptcy lawyer Leonard Pena said his voting this year was driven by his 21-month-old daughter. "Her future is really important to me," he said. "Our country deserves something different."

Even though he and his girlfriend haven't gotten married, Pena said, he believes that people should be able to marry whomever they want.

"I really think it's more about love than marriage," he said. "Marriage isn't that important to me, but it may be to some people."

Jessica Garrison is a Times staff writer

jessica.garrison@latimes.com

Times staff writers Mike Anton, Anna Gorman, David Lauter, Joanna Lin and Harriet Ryan contributed to this article.