The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

THE GOOD NEWS:

It's good news for reproductive rights advocates as ballot measures in California, Colorado, and South Dakota were defeated. With 98% of the vote counted California voters defeated Prop 2, a teen endangerment measure, by 52% to 48%. Colorado voters rejected by a margin of nearly three to one an amendment to the state Constitution that would have defined human life as beginning at the moment of fertilization. And South Dakota defeated an initiative that would ban abortion in most cases. Two years ago South Dakotans rejected a similar measure and they did so again on Tuesday, with 55 percent of the voters opposing the provision.



THE BAD NEWS:

Voters in California, Florida and Arizona all passed measures which would amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. In California it cast into limbo some 18,000 same-sex marriages performed since June, when a state Supreme Court decision opened the way to such unions. Attorney General Jerry Brown has said the marriages will stand, but legal experts predict court challenges. The Florida ballot initiative was simply mean-spirited, as same-sex unions were already illegal in the state. This new measure threatens ALL domestic partner unions -- even those of heterosexual couples. Arizona, who rejected a similar measure in 2006, passed a ban on same sex marriage. In all, it was a very bad day for equality.



THE UGLY:

All of these mean-spirited ballot measures point to a new reality -- that religious right extremists who are now feeling the sting of defeat nationally will concentrate more of there efforts in the states. We MUST remain vigilant to counter what is surely to come.

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