Sorry, but any referendum, initiative, state constitutional amendment or law passed by the legislature is subservient to the guarantees of the US constitution, regardless of how large of a majority may approve of it and as such, subject to challenge in federal court. This is not the first such case where a voter approved state constitutional amendment has been successfully challenged as a violation of federal rights and probably won’t be the last, because if there is one drawback that can unfortunately be counted on with democracy in action is that from time to time, the majority can get things horribly wrong.
You might want to re-read Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, as it doesn’t have the limitations that you are implying:
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
People who are Lesbian or Gay can and should count themselves among the citizens of this nation and entitled to the equal protection of its laws.
What you need to understand is that the states have not chosen to call their legal recognition of such kinship/relationship agreements anything but marriage and while in reality they are nothing more than civil unions, as long as the states call them marriages, that is what same sex couples are constitutionally entitled to. Religions will remain free to define their marriages however they see fit, but the secular law must treat Lesbian and Gay couples equally.
