Historic election overlooked gay rights

November 23, 2008 12:36 am

The election of Barack Obama was historic, but there is one downside: Proposition 8, which tries to deny gay people the right to marry, passed in California.

According to exit polls, 70 percent of the black community voted to deny marriage rights.

If Obama didn't make for a historically large black turnout, the proposition would have failed and gay people would have kept the right to marry.

No wonder gay people feel like the low man on the totem pole; basic rights are denied to them. But gay organizations have only themselves to blame. They did a terrible job reaching out to other minority communities.

Coretta Scott King believed in equal gay rights. She understood the issue is human rights, not sexuality. I wish others would.

This is a sad footnote to a historic election.

Patrick Victor

Fredericksburg