Prop. 8 wins; legal challenges poised

LOS ANGELES —

California voters have adopted a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex

marriage, overturning the state Supreme Court decision

that gave gay couples the right to wed just months

ago.

Exit polling showed California's black and Latino voters, who turned out in droves for Barack Obama,

also provided key support in favor of the state's same-sex marriage ban.

More than half of Latino voters supported Proposition 8, while whites were

split.

Religious groups led the tightly organized campaign for the measure, and

religious voters were decisive in getting it passed. Of the seven in 10 voters

who described themselves as Christian, two-thirds backed the initiative.

Married voters and voters with children strongly supported Proposition 8.

Unmarried voters were heavily opposed.San

Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said through a spokesman he would

file a legal challenge to a winning Proposition 8  in the California Supreme Court.

The first lesbian couple to be married in Los Angeles County after

the Supreme Court threw out California's previous gay marriage ban also

plans to announce a lawsuit against Proposition 8. Attorney Gloria

Allred says that lawsuit will argue the measure is unconstitutional."We pick ourselves up and trudge on," Kate Kendell, executive director of the

National Center for Lesbian Rights, said early Wednesday when it appeared the

measure was headed for passage. "There has been enormous movement in favor of

full equality in eight short years. That is the direction this is heading, and

if it's not today or it's not tomorrow, it will be soon."

With almost all precincts reporting, election returns showed the measure