While Obama was winning the US presidential election something else was going on in California. A state ballot on "Proposition 8" intended to exclude the possibility of gay marriage.

Almost 12 million votes were cast and Prop 8 was passed by a majority of almost 0.5 million. This has unleashed a debate in the US at least as vigorous as the one surrounding Obama's election.

Here is an excellent selection of blogposts and articles covering the subject, with an emphasis on the position of alleged racism in all of this:

  Powens Preposterous Posterous