It was bad enough that the excitement about Obama's election had to share emotional space with the grim news about anti-gay initiatives passing in California, Florida, Arizona, and Arkansas.  But that news was made even worse by the destructive and racist reactions by some gay activists who are blaming black Californians for Prop 8's passage.  People For's President Kathryn Kolbert puts the blame where it belongs and calls for a forward-looking strategy. Read her memo here.

Nate Silver at 538 takes a look at poll numbers on California’s Prop 8 (the anti-marriage amendment on the ballot) and declares it a toss up.

As we have documented in recent days, the approaching elections have, with an assist from the McCain campaign and GOP strategists, brought some real ugliness into the open, including outright racism. 

Of course, an election year would not be complete without overt and covert appeals to anti-gay sentiment from right-wing politicians.  It’s at its most overt in the anti-equality ballot campaigns in California, Florida, and Arizona, which are being massively funded by national Religious Right groups and Mormon donors. 

But it also shows up in appeals grounded in the favored language of family values.  Below you can see scans of a mailing for an Ohio State Representative candidate who announces, under the heading “Love of Family,” that “Michael Keenan will strengthen families by keeping marriage between a man and a woman.”

No word on how that strengthens Ohio families who might be dealing with lost jobs, slumping wages, lack of affordable health care, or any of the other difficulties that could put stress on marriages.  Thank goodness he’ll keep committed gay couples from the legal protections that marriage can provide!  Think how much that will strengthen Ohio’s struggling families!

Via ThinkProgress comes news that Gov. Palin said in a recent CBN interview that she (unlike her running mate) is in favor amending the Constitution to make gay marriage illegal:

In Alaska, Palin said,

I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. I wish on a federal level that that’s where we would go because I don’t support gay marriage. I’m not going to be out there judging individuals, sitting in a seat of judgment telling what they can and can’t do, should and should not do.

 TP's got the video here.