Academic

An Excellent Day for Dems Is Dampened by Results on Anti-LGBT Ballot Measures

By Tony Infanti

I spent most of the day yesterday (as soon as I got out of class early in the morning!) doing election protection work here in my home state of Pennsylvania. I was so thrilled to be just a little part of a historic moment yesterday and to see Obama’s victory speech last night before I went to bed.

When I woke up this morning, however, things were not looking so great on the ballot measures affecting the LGBT community. As of now (6:45 a.m.), CNN is projecting that Arizona Prop. 102 and Florida Amendment 2 will both pass–by wide margins, 56% and 62% yes votes, respectively–and add bans on same-sex marriage to those state’s constitutions. CNN is also projecting that Arkansas’s Initiative 1 to ban same-sex couples from adopting or serving as foster parents will also pass–again, by a wide margin (57% yes votes). Right now, California Prop. 8 has not been called, but the yes votes are leading the no votes 52%-48% with 87% of the precincts reporting. I’ll be keeping my eye on this one during the day and will blog the results when I see them as a follow-up to this post.

By way of a tax aside, I was happy to see that Massachusetts voters are projected to reject the proposal to repeal that state’s income tax by a wide margin (70%-30%). That’s good news for anyone who cares about social justice, not just tax folks.

-Tony Infanti

Full post as published by Feminist Law Professors on November 05, 2008 (boomark / email).