Californians delivered a crushing blow to gay right-activists Tuesday by voting to ban gay marriage, putting 18,000 same-sex marriages in the state in legal jeopardy.
Earlier this year the California courts legalized same-sex marriage, but the constitutional amendment that passed Tuesday, Proposition 8, will limit marriage to heterosexual couples.
"There's something deeply wrong with putting the rights of a minority up to a majority vote," said Evan Wolfson, a gay-rights lawyer who heads a group called Freedom to Marry. "If this were being done to almost any other minority, people would see how un-American this is."
With almost all precincts reporting election results had the measure winning with about 52 per cent of the vote, and Proposition 8 supporters declared victory Wednesday.
"People believe in the institution of marriage," Frank Schubert, co-manager of the Yes on 8 campaign, said. "It's one institution that crosses ethnic divides, that crosses partisan divides. ... People have stood up because they care about marriage and they care a great deal."
Leaders of the No on 8 campaign said they were not ready to concede and they are preparing a legal challenge to the measure.
"Because Prop 8 involves the sensitive matter of individual rights, we believe it is important to wait until we receive further information about the outcome," Geoff Kors, director of Equality California, said in a statement Wednesday.
A petition was filed Wednesday asking the Supreme Court to quash Proposition 8 on the grounds that voters don't have the authority to make the law without approval from the Legislature.
A similar motion was filed in June but was struck down.
Jerry Brown, the state's attorney general said California's 18,000 gay marriages will remain valid but legal challenges could be made.
With the ban, there is now only one state allowing same-sex marriages, Massachusetts, but Connecticut will start allowing the marriages next week.
New York and Rhode Island both legally acknowledge same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
Proposition 8 became the most expensive social-rights issue in U.S. history, with ad spending of about $75 million combined from supporters and proponents.
While Barack Obama's historic election as the U.S.'s next president was seen as a huge win for progressive, exit polls showed that Obama supporters were vital in the effort to ban same-sex marriage.
Exit polls conducted by The Associated Press showed that African-Americans, who turned out in huge numbers, voted heavily in support of the measure. About seven in ten African-Americans supported the ban, while whites were about evenly split.
Analysts point out that African-Americans are more likely to go to church than whites as a reason for the difference in voting.
Overall, it was a horrible night for the gay-rights movement in the U.S. as amendments to ban gay marriage were also passed in Arizona and Florida, and Arkansas voted to approve a ban on unmarried couples from adopting. Supporters made it clear that ban was aimed at hopeful gay and lesbian parents.
On the bright side for progressives, though hardly as central an issue, voters in Massachusetts decriminalized the possession of pot in amounts smaller than an ounce. Instead the marijuana will be forfeited and the person will be fined $100.
In Michigan, a measure was approved to allow ill patients to register with the state to buy, grow and use pot in small amounts to relieve pain, nausea and appetite loss.
With files from the Associated Press
