A momentous day. Andrew notes that this act takes the wind out of the right's judicial activism argument, which is correct. I do wonder about how useful this activism argument is outside of the conservative base, in which a feeling of victimization is par for the course and helplessness is everywhere to be found. Most people outside of that group, though, don't feel besieged by invisible, insidious liberal forces so I think that average folks are probably not too concerned about this issue one way or another.
As a Californian, I can tell you that the anti-equality forces managed to turn Prop 8 around largely by making it about whether or not homosexuality is taught in schools or forced upon churches. The statements were untrue and paranoid, and had the No On 8 campaign been possessed of half a brain, they would have said, "Gay marriage is already legal. We're voting on whether to keep it. Those things haven't happened and, since marriage is legal now, they probably won't happen in the future." Alas, the No On 8 folks didn't have a clue.
So, basically, if gay marriage is going to make it, advocates have to make it clear from the start that all of this "forcing churches to marry gays" garbage isn't true. The religious right is utterly without scruples--they're so convinced of their superior morality that outright lying doesn't bother them one bit. Hopefully when California puts this up for a vote again, our side will have learned our lesson.
