(Washington) Aja and Miriam Aguirre rushed their trip to the altar in San Francisco a few weeks ago, fearful that the state of California might vote in favor of banning same-sex marriage on election day.

Yet as angry as the newlyweds are, they’re almost as outraged at the suggestion that African-Americans are to blame, especially as the country basks in the glow of Barack Obama’s historic election.

“I refuse to perpetuate a cycle of oppression because someone is telling me who to blame, who is at fault for my status as a second-class citizen, where I might displace my anger and frustration and outrage,” Aja Aguirre said Sunday, despite fears that her marriage could conceivably be deemed illegitimate.

“I won’t do that because it is false in every way. I know better than that. I hope we all do.”

A bitterly ironic battle has erupted in California in the days since Obama was elected the first black president in American history, a victory many African-Americans are hoping signals an end to generations of repression.

Proposition 8, banning the right of same-sex couples to wed, passed by more than three percentage points in the reliably Democratic state.

Much of that margin came from a flood of as many as 500,000 new black voters turning out to cast their ballots for Obama. According to various polls, African-American voters supported the ban by 70-30 per cent, while whites were slightly opposed and Hispanics evenly split.

“I’m not sure what to do with this,” Dan Savage, a well-known gay advice columnist, wrote on his blog in the aftermath of the vote.

“I’m thrilled that we’ve just elected our first African-American president … but I can’t help feeling hurt that the love and support aren’t mutual.”

The African-American community, Savage said, has a problem with homophobia that needs to be confronted.

“I’m done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there -and they’re out there, and I think they’re scum – are a bigger problem for African-Americans, gay and straight, than the huge numbers of homophobic African-Americans are for gay Americans, whatever their color.”

In the midst of such heated talk and hurt feelings, a rally late last week against Proposition 8 in Los Angeles turned ugly.

“It was like being at a Klan rally except the Klansmen were wearing Abercrombie polos and Birkenstocks,” said one attendee, a gay black man.

The UCLA student said he was twice called the n-word.

But many argue it’s not race that is to blame for Proposition 8, but the religious right. It was the Mormon church that pushed to get the measure on the ballot, after all.

Mormon church leaders badgered other Mormons countrywide to donate heavily to the campaign and recruited thousands of volunteers for door-to-door canvassing throughout the state.

Several progressive black church leaders urged Californians to vote against Proposition 8 in the weeks leading up the election, although they acknowledged African-Americans were “conservative” on the issue of same-sex marriage and so were many of their pastors.

And since black Americans go to church in greater numbers than other races, they’re confronted far more often with the suggestion that homosexuality is sinful.

“The success of Proposition 8 is certainly about religion more than anything else but there’s no denying those attitudes are ingrained in the black community – homosexuality just isn’t accepted the way it is in other communities,” says Toni-Michelle Travis, a political science professor who specializes in race at George Mason University in Virginia.

It stems back hundreds of years, Travis says.

“When you look at the struggles throughout slavery, the only way they were going to survive, to get to the next step and preserve anything culturally was to have children,” she said.

“So the value of the family and heterosexuality has always been very important, and it’s been reinforced by black churches over generations. The civil rights movement, too, was driven by the black churches, so church and religion are a very cherished part of the community. You belong to a church, and you listen to your pastor.”

Many African-Americans also fail to see the hardships facing gays and lesbians as being on the same scale as their epic battles for equality, Travis said.

“African-Americans don’t see the fights for the rights of gays the same as their struggle,” Travis said. “Their attitude is: `They wouldn’t let me vote, they wouldn’t give me a job, and you can do those sorts of things.”’

Gay and lesbian rights leaders in California are filing suit against Proposition 8, arguing it’s illegal because it strips a fundamental constitutional right from a select group of people.

Before such propositions can go to the ballot, they argue, the state legislature must approve them and that didn’t happen in California.

The Aguirres are confident their battle will eventually be won, especially after a San Francisco march last Friday night that was attended by people of all races and from all walks of life.

“There were friends, lovers and families like ours,” said Aja Aguirre, who has a 10-year-old daughter, Celeste.

“It felt so good to be there and be part of this effort not to back down, not be silenced or defeated. Seeing the thousands of people gathered together there peacefully brought tears to my eyes and was exactly what I needed to shake off the depression I’d been in since it became clear on election night that Prop. 8 would pass.”