11/05/2008
Open Thread -- Election Night Continued
We don't usually do this but folks don't seem ready to stopl The whole evening's discussion will remain archived here as well.
Entire Live blog transciprt avaialble at http://www.towleroad.com/change.html
We had to remove the transcript because, the almost 12 hours of constant comments, discussion, photos, videos, polls and some of the most amazing, honest, alright tearful, reactioms to both the election of Barack Obamaalong with the confusion and clarity on how very mixed an evening we had, well tuns out that's way too big to fit in a post
So check out election night on Towleroad at http://www.towleroad.com/change.html
Michael Goff
Posted 1:23 AM EST by Andy Towle in Election 2008 | Permalink
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San Luis County just turned NO to Prop 8!
Posted by: George | Nov 5, 2008 1:31:53 AM
LA County is at 10%?
Posted by: Drew | Nov 5, 2008 1:36:19 AM
Prop 8 Results at L.A. Times http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-2008election-california-results,0,1293859.htmlstory?view=8
Posted by: ShyLurker | Nov 5, 2008 1:36:58 AM
CA Prop results straight from the Sec of State:
http://vote.sos.ca.gov/Returns/props/59.htm
Posted by: 24play | Nov 5, 2008 1:59:36 AM
It's a tough fight, we might not win this one, but it's far from over. The younger generation is with us. I think we should also get our movement better organized and more strategically oriented.
Posted by: Dan | Nov 5, 2008 2:06:29 AM
"It's a tough fight, we might not win this one, but it's far from over."
Yes, and the important thing is John McCain won't be there to appoint Supreme Court justices who would consider a state law denying gays, oh, I dunno, the right to live (at all!) "constitutional".
Posted by: St. Theresa of Avila | Nov 5, 2008 2:16:54 AM
We've probably lost this one. It will be close though. I'm guessing 52 to 48 percent. The reason for our defeat?
We did piss poor in Los Angeles.
Everywhere else came out pretty much as one would expect. The area around San Francisco voted against the ban. And McCain areas voted for it. But L.A. voted for Obama, yet turned sharply against us.
Posted by: John in CA | Nov 5, 2008 2:27:28 AM
I haven't given up on it, but one wonders if Obama being on the ballot actually HURT this one. The African American community was mainly against this measure. Shocker due to you thinking they'd know more than anyone what it's like...but I digress
Posted by: Drew | Nov 5, 2008 2:29:52 AM
I think we lost it. And the saddest part--exit polls shows that most white people voted NO on 8. Most latino voters voted NO on 8, most asian voters voted No on 8..and most black voters voted YES on 8, thus destroying our chances of equality. Kinda funny, a once repressed and discriminated group forcing a ban on another discriminated group. Black people as a whole have officially lost my respect. i'm glad Obama won, but just can't stand for this kind of treatment from a group that faced so much discrimination in the past and is now so free to discriminate. I can only imagine if a white candidate had been running for democrat if we would have won, and my heart and mind tell me we would have destroyed Prop 8 if not for the black vote. :(
Posted by: Todd | Nov 5, 2008 2:40:54 AM
I'm just so heartbroken right now....
Posted by: gabriel | Nov 5, 2008 2:42:57 AM
Oh todd, don't hold it against all african americans in general...this just shows some more knowledge and out reach needs to be done.
Posted by: Drew | Nov 5, 2008 2:43:34 AM
Oh Drew, why shouldn't I hold it against a group of people who have swayed the vote like this? A group of people who were once treated like garbage and are now free to treat others as garbage. I'm not saying every single black person is a bigot, but I do think they surely proves that the majority of them are nothing more then wolves in sheeps clothing. Let me "reach out" to those black people and hope they start moving to the back of the bus. If they want to segregate and discriminated against us, I hope they are ready for the same. I really think they are going to be in for a wakeup call from not only gays and lesbians, but straight people a like once the racial results are all over the news.
Posted by: Todd | Nov 5, 2008 2:51:15 AM
clearly the mormons are to blame if we lose
Posted by: Dan A. | Nov 5, 2008 3:03:09 AM
My street in DC is celebrating Obama's victory tonight! This was at about 2:30 am:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3U8fNjW2-w
Posted by: Hephaestion | Nov 5, 2008 3:09:56 AM
Todd, if I'm not mistaken, the 2006 census pegs the racial makeup of California at about 58.9% white, 35.9% Hispanic, 12.3% Asian and only 6.2% African-American.
Not only is it wrong to be making such blanket statements demonizing an entire ethnic group but if Prop 8 passes, I think you're focusing on the wrong ethnic group for "blame".
Posted by: RJ | Nov 5, 2008 3:21:48 AM
That's very true RJ, the main people to blame are the right wing religious whack jobs who lie and discriminate against others but claim their so "moral".
Posted by: Drew | Nov 5, 2008 3:27:25 AM
RJ, Any excuse will do for people like Todd. Actually, I'm not sure people like him need an excuse.
Posted by: Jason (A) | Nov 5, 2008 3:31:58 AM
Todd:
If Prop. 8 wins in CA you have Caucasians, mostly in southern CA, to blame. I can't believe we did so poorly in LA, but we did even worse in San Diego. The No on Prop. 8 campaign only became a cohesive campaign in the final weeks. It's a damn shame. I guess it's back to the polls. It's not like another initiative can't be placed on the ballot to repeal Prop. 8 if it passes.
Posted by: sugarhill | Nov 5, 2008 3:51:10 AM
Todd,
You're a miserable idiot. You literally make me sick to my stomach with your reaction to this unfortunate turn of events in CA and FL. F*ck you. I'm black and gay and I find your logical conclusion about most black people appalling and dangerous. F*ck you!
Posted by: mikey d | Nov 5, 2008 3:52:15 AM
Frankly, I think a lot of people - including whites and Hispanics - simply lied to the exit polls. Which kind of makes it worse because these voters must know what they're doing is wrong on some level. But then they decide to do it anyway.
Posted by: John in CA | Nov 5, 2008 3:54:50 AM
John:
What's even worse is that without getting more Whites and Latinos on our side we won't be able to repeal this amendment if it passes. They are the majority of the CA population. Latinos are more than double the AA population. And Whites are double the Latino population. Without those two populations marriage equality is doomed in CA.
Posted by: sugarrhill | Nov 5, 2008 4:28:17 AM
I don't get what's going on in L.A. County...
Posted by: Drew | Nov 5, 2008 4:40:53 AM
Well, it looks like we're going to be the last truly accepted minority in this great melting pot of ours. How can marriage, gay or straight, truly be recognized as a state issue when tens of millions of dollars have been poured into our state from bigots who don't even reside here? OTHER states influenced this decision. OTHER out-of-state citizens decided that we were second class citizens. OTHER people unashamedly lied to the people of California. It makes me sick that a majority of Californians decided to believe those lies. But it makes me even sicker that those lies were significantly sponsored by non-Californians. Don't even get me started on this inept and drastically flawed proposition "hurdle over the legislators" method of California government. Our system is fucked.
Posted by: Ben | Nov 5, 2008 4:44:39 AM
I can't sleep. And. I'm pretty sure we lost, but I still have a little hope left in my heart. The race just swung to a 4% margin. But there are only about 20% precincts left unaccounted for...
Posted by: atsao | Nov 5, 2008 4:48:57 AM
My support to you guys who are still poring over results...I've been there. But the stress level was too high in past elections, so these days I sit the results "refreshing" out.
The bad news...of course looks like we lost. Say by 4-5%.
The good news...we lost Prop 22 in 2000 by around 20%.
Times have changed, and are changing. At the current rate, in 10 years (maybe sooner! Give or take) we will be able to get full support.
Also to refer to the concern about Caucasian and Latino voters above, the exit polls (grain of salt but still) show that we got a majority of white voters against the ban (55%) while Latinos were split. So looks like we have a good beginning with these groups to build on.
What we need to work on is our outreach to the African-American community. They were not singly responsible for the Prop likely passing, but they did vote for it in overwhelming proportion.
Another perhaps silver lining, is that this may force a shake-up in the leadership of the gay rights movement. I've been reading about the management of the HRC and it seems fairly ineffectual. The recent otherwise snobby "Gay Mafia" article in Time IIRC mentioned that their overhead costs are not efficient. And their results seem middling.
The No on 8 campaign only got its act together in the last few weeks. Future campaigns need to be much better organized. They need to be proactive, no reactive as this one was.
Posted by: Dan | Nov 5, 2008 5:00:28 AM