Jonah has a good piece on Obama voters and Proposition 8 in California over on the homepage, and here are some numbers that put it all into perspective. From looking at the votes, it’s clear that Obama voters put the passage of Prop. 8 over the top in California, especially Los Angeles County which went to Obama by a margin of 70 percent to 30percent, but passed Prop. 8 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent. LATimes.com has an interactive map to see the statewide numbers. Below is filtered for counties that went for Obama, passage of Prop. 8 in green, opposed to Prop. 8 in orange. Lots of Obama voters approved of Prop. 8.

I only bring this up because of this post I read on The Daily Beast by Melissa Etheridge on how she has decided she doesn’t have to pay state taxes now because of Prop. 8’s passage:

Okay, cool I don’t mean to get too personal here but there is a lot I can do with the extra half a million dollars that I will be keeping instead of handing it over to the state of California. Oh, and I am sure Ellen will be a little excited to keep her bazillion bucks that she pays in taxes too. Wow, come to think of it, there are quite a few of us fortunate gay folks that will be having some extra cash this year. What recession? We’re gay! I am sure there will be a little box on the tax forms now single, married, divorced, gay, check here if you are gay, yeah, that’s not so bad. Of course all of the waiters and hairdressers and UPS workers and gym teachers and such, they won’t have to pay their taxes either.

She’s understandably hurt, angry, and crushed – but then she writes this:

I tell myself to take a breath, okay take another one, one of the thems made it to the top. Obama has been elected president. This crazy fearful insanity will end soon. This great state and this great country of ours will finally come to the understanding that there is no “them”. We are one. We are united. What you do to someone else you do to yourself. That “judge not, lest ye yourself be judged” are truthful words and not Christian rhetoric.

Um, hello. Obama did nothing to help defeat Prop. 8 in California other than appear on Ellen, do a little dance, and then, a few days before the election, come out with this statement to MTV:

“I think it’s unnecessary,” Obama told Sway, in response to a question sent in by Gangstagigz from San Leandro, California. “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them.”

In other words, he votes present – a typical, non answer from the now President-elect.