"Whatever happened last night does not change how I feel about my husband and my family," Moll said. "It is a tough feeling, but I know this is a strong community, and I know we'll find the next step."
Earlier Wednesday, Paul Waters of Valley Village summed up his feelings: "disappointment." "Straight couples don't have a way to be able to truly understand the depth of what this means." Waters married his partner of 15 years, Kevin Voecks, on June 17.
Like them, many gay-rights activists spent the day asking themselves how they had been defeated. At the polls Tuesday, voters throughout the state said proponents' argument about schools was a major part of the answer.
"I'm concerned about having to educate children," Sharon Smith said after she voted in Altadena.
Smith and other African American voters played a crucial role in the outcome. An exit poll of California voters showed that black voters sided in favor of the measure by margins of more than 2 to 1. Not only was the black vote weighted heavily in favor of Proposition 8, but black turnout -- spurred by Barack Obama's campaign for president -- was unusually large, making up roughly 10% of the voters. The exit poll was conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International for a consortium of news organizations.
The campaign against Proposition 8 also did relatively poorly in Los Angeles County, where voters were divided almost evenly. By contrast, on the other high-profile social issue on the ballot, Proposition 4 on abortion, the liberal side carried Los Angeles by a margin of almost 200,000 votes.
On Wednesday, the proposition's backers celebrated their victory.
"Marriage has been protected," said Cal Schell, 65, a resident of the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova.
Schell said he felt sad that "there's a lot of people who have a lot of angst over this. But it is very important that this be protected. . . . Go to any country, any place in the world. Marriage between a man and a woman has been a part of our being clear back to the days of early time."
Ron Prentice of the Protect Marriage Coalition said in a statement that "the people of California stood up for traditional marriage and reclaimed this great institution. We are gratified that voters chose to protect traditional marriage and to enshrine its importance in the state Constitution."
The campaign against Proposition 8 refused to formally concede Wednesday, saying that there were too many provisional and mail-in ballots to be counted.
