Hopeful

. . . at least about this : As of early this morning, California’s Proposition 8 was passing with 52 percent of the vote (92 percent of precincts reporting). The proposition would amend the state’s constitution to say that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

Similar definitions of the traditional understanding of marriage were passed yesterday in Florida (with 62 percent support), as well as in Arizona . If Proposition 8 prevails in California, that will mark the thirtieth state to ban gay marriage on the constitutional level.