Conservative Voters celebrated a sweeping victory, capturingmore than just the presidency this past election. All eleven statesthat had gay marriage on the ballot rejected the measures,encouraging conservatives to push Congress towards approving afederal constitutional amendment that would forbid gay marriagenationally.

Among the states to deny the measure wereArkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, NorthDakota, Oklahoma, Utah, and finally Ohio- arguably the mostcritical state in this year’s election.

“Christianshere and around the nation consider this a great victory for theinstitution of marriage,” Rod Parsley, pastor of World HarvestChurch in Columbus, Ohio told the Associated Press. “We had tostand up and say ‘Enough is enough’.” 

Despite thecountless number of issues to be decided by this election, moralitywas obviously the most prevalent factor in voter decisions thisyear, proving that President Bush’s strategy to emphasize hisconservative Christian beliefs may have swayed voters who wouldotherwise vote for Kerry.

Only two ofthe eleven states (Michigan and Oregon) were won by the DemocraticParty this year.

Because ofissues like gay marriage, Republicans got a boost in support froman unlikely demographical group-African Americans. Despitetraditionally being overwhelmingly democratic, African Americanstend to be just as religiously conservative than their whitecounterparts.

Thedecision comes as an unwanted reality check for gay-rightsactivist, but they are determined to continue to fight.

MattForeman, a representative from the National Gay and Lesbian TaskForce described the election results as “a right hook to thechin …  but certainly not a knockout.”