A Primer on Prop 8

From parentsociety.com blog:
In the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the federal government legally codified the definition of marriage as being solely between a man and a woman. Afterward, several states borrowed the exact language of DOMA and made it state law as well. But many groups feared the possibility of LGBTQ couples marrying through judicial actions.

As cited in an earlier post, DOMA is undermined by the very fact that it fails to treat LGBTQ couples who are marrying as equals to opposite-sex couples who can marry. Fearful that DOMA may be overturned, and that judges will set the state’s rules of who can get married (as was the case in Massachusetts in 2003), many began working hard, and quickly, to amend state constitutions stating that marriage is between one man and one woman. For example, North Carolina forbids marriage equality through state law, but the citizens also amended their constitution on May 8, 2012.
Proposition 8 was a ballot proposition and constitutional amendment in California a brief few months after the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. Same-sex couples and parents could be wed from Mt. Shasta to the southern border with Mexico. While it did not have an impact upon domestic-partnered relationship, Prop 8 stopped all same-sex marriages after Nov. 5, 2008.
Read more on: http://www.parentsociety.com/todays-family/same-sex-parents/why-prop-8-matters-to-same-sex-parents/