Not to put a damper on the post post-racial victory, but California is really sucking the big one right now. Looks like Proposition 8, the ban on gay marriage in California, will pass today. It’s at 52% approval to 48% disapproval, and there aren’t all that many votes left to count. Prop 4 results are also almost all in, and Californians have chosen to reject the initiative, which would have required doctors to inform a minor’s parents before performing an abortion and mandated a 48-hour waiting period prior to the procedure. So gay people can’t get married, but minors can get abortions without needing to inform their (perhaps intolerant) parents, which is sort of a nice consolation prize.

The San Francisco Business Times reports:

Proposition 8, a ban on gay marriage in California, led in poll results early on Wednesday.

The divisive measure, bitterly contested by supporters and opponents in an expensive fight, led 52 percent to 48 percent with 95 percent of the state’s precincts having reported.

The measure was put on the ballot after a May 15 state Supreme Court decision that struck down California’s ban on same-sex marriage. The proposition was strongly supported in California’s conservative Central Valley, but no county in the Bay Area bar Solano favored it.

San Francisco in particular benefited from a tourism boom as gay and lesbian couples traveled to the city to be married. The Friday before Pride Week saw San Francisco’s gilded City Hall overun by couples lining up in cafeteria-style queues to get their documents completed before ceremonies took place all over the building. Many of them had been married in the past, some even twice before, and hoped “the third time’s the charm,” as one couple said in their vows.

Even if many Californians are morally opposed to gay marriage, they’ve got to realize the pragmatic benefits of permitting it. Tourism, cake sales, and tux rentals must be contributing fiscally to the state, and don’t we all want that? If UC Berkeley could cut down trees to make way for an athletic center, why can’t the state think as practically about gay marriage? Come on California, think about the cake sales!