WASHINGTON (AFP) — Despite a landslide victory for Democrats in the White House race, Americans generally voted more conservatively in a myriad of referendums on banning gay marriage and abortion.
Voters in some states rejected gay marriage rights and affirmative action and approved restrictions on adoption for unmarried couples.
However, results were mixed as other referenda across the country -- some 35 states were asked to consider 153 ballot questions -- showed voters in favor of assisted suicide and against outright bans on abortion.
In California, Florida, Arizona and Arkansas, voters rejected gay marriage.
In Arkansas, they voted to prevent unmarried people from adopting a child. The decision was decried by gay rights supporters who said it would limit their ability to adopt children.
But voters rejected a near-total ban on abortion in South Dakota and Colorado and allowed assisted suicide in Washington state, making it the second US state after Oregon to allow the procedure for terminally ill people.
Jennie Drage-Bower, senior election analyst with the National Conference of State Legislators, said abortion limits do not have a strong history.
"Restriction on abortion has been on the ballot 23 times since 1980 and only five of those have been approved by voters," she said. "So that's not really an issue that voters historically have been receptive to on the ballot."
The marijuana rights movement were riding high after enjoying two key victories.
Voters in Massachusetts decriminalized the possession of one ounce or less of the weed, ruling that people caught in the state with that amount will forfeit the drug and pay a 100 dollar civil fine instead of facing criminal penalties, according to the independent website RealClearPolitics.
Michigan joined 12 other states by allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes, allowing severely ill patients to register with the state and legally buy, grow and use the drug, the site reported.
In another politically charged issue, voters in five states were asked to rule on affirmative action, or targeted policies that aim to increase employment and education for minorities.
In Nebraska the programs, which are often slammed by critics as showing unfair racial preferences, were rejected 58 percent to 42 percent. In Colorado, the result was still too close to call Wednesday.
California's gay marriage ban, which had been too close to call for most of Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, was passed with 5,358,796 votes, or 52.5 percent, compared to 4,866,831, or 47.5 percent that opposed.
Known as "Proposition 8," the proposal was trumpeted by conservative and religious groups as the people's way of overturning the state Supreme Court's ruling in May that legalized gay marriage.
A lesbian couple, Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, who previously won the right to marry with the Supreme Court ruling, were to file a new suit to stop the referendum from coming into effect, joining a number of other legal challenges to the measure.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wrote a letter to the City Attorney's Office asking for preparation for a legal challenge to the measure, in an action similar to that expected from the San Francisco city attorney.
"We must take immediate action to protect Los Angeles residents whose lives and freedoms are threatened by consequences from the possible implementation of Proposition 8," Villaraigosa wrote in the letter.
The vote leaves thousands of same-sex couples who tied the knot in limbo in the ensuing months, including some celebrities including comedian Ellen DeGeneres who wed her long-time girlfriend Portia de Rossi in August.
Japanese-American actor George Takei, who played Mr Sulu in the long-running series "Star Trek," and who married his longtime partner Brad Altman in September, said his marriage would remain valid no matter what.
"There's nothing in the language of Proposition 8 that says it's retroactive, so our marriage is going to be valid," he told a local TV channel.
Takei and Altman were the first couple to receive a marriage license in West Hollywood when California began issuing them to gay couples on June 17.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown affirmed that any same-sex couples married over the past six months when the unions were legal will remain married.
Arizona and Florida also passed similar referenda by large margins Tuesday, stating that marriage was the legal union between a man and a woman.
Neil Giuliano, president of the gay rights group GLAAD, said he was saddened by the vote.
"We are disappointed and disheartened by results in Arkansas, Arizona and Florida, where we saw laws passed that are intended to hurt loving, committed couples and families," he said.
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