Since when does God have anything to do with laws?? If you want God go to church not city hall.

Christine, Las Vegas, USA

Matt in Santa Cruz, the scripture is not the law.

David, Chicago, USA

Separation of church and state, anyone?

cheryl, st louis,

Hey matt in santa cruz,
If you're going to break out the whole "created by man" thing you might choose to realize that the bible was written COMPLETELY by man. There was no higher power penning the bible. I do believe that the bible is inspired by god. the bible isn't god's words verbatum

Kate, chicago, USA!!!

If people want to live together no one is stopping them. Civil contracts can cover how they want to govern their relationship, if they want to formalise. But marriage is between a man and a woman - that's the way it always will be, irrespective of what legislators say!

Peter Sammons, Cambridge, UK

Surely God would be happy that 2 people love each other and want to express that love? And I think if he's going to be judging anyone it's those who think they have the right to take his place and say what people can and can't do. I'm glad I don't live in America

ellie, London,

Millions of people of all faiths worldwide believe homosexuality is a sin, and "gay marriages" are Blasphemy.
It is probably, under this Govt., a worse crime than mugging to object.
Pagan children cannot be taught their religion in schools, but you can teach them "It's OK to be Gay" . Sheesh!

Dragon, Windsor, England

Well, Matt from Santa Cruz, what about "timshel" from the story of Cain and Abel? If you believe that the word of the Bible is the word of God then timshel is God's gift of free will.

Jahna, Madison,

So much hoopla over couples who love one another. So they want to marry. Let them! It is not going to effect you so why do you care? The world may be crumbling down around us and you're worried about same sex marriage. Gays are human beings. Treat them as such.

janice kornas, streator, united states

I thought that the idea of 'Gay Marriage' was to give 'couples' the same rights under the law with regard to inheritance and tax etc.
What this has to do with the loony idea of this act changing the concept of marriage between a man and a woman has me stumped.
Arthur from Birmingham has it right.

Howard Leech, Gdansk, Poland

But Arthur, plenty of people do not marry in church, they just marry in a registry office. But it's still marriage.

That said, as long as gay people have an option that gives them equal rights to heterosexual couples, that's fine by me. Problem is, it's highly unlikely that will be the case here.

Ross, lancaster, UK

The US constitution calls for the seperation of church and state. Thus, the state ought only to be in the civil partnership business, open to all without discrimination; and, leave marriage to those people, who want it for religious reasons, in private ceremonies. Problem solved.

Arthur, Birmingham, UK

Hey Erin in Washington DC,
Read scripture again. There is nothing that say's "Free Will" in scripture. That concept was created by man, and not the God of the Bible. True, we are offered God's grace and forgiveness for the bad choices we make, but we must be truly sorry for the behaviour.

Matt , Santa Cruz , USA

To all of you who are invoking God as a reason to justify the passing of Prop 8: according to the Bible, God he gave man free will to do as he chooses. So stop trying to impose your will on other people. You're not God! How do you know what God thinks? That's right, you don't. Live and let live.

Erin, Washington, DC,

Surely the answer is for Google to ban all religious or political adverts. This is already done on British television. It is not a case of free speech since adverts by definition cost money.

David Gwilliam, Leicester, England

Those same ads showed up on my site and I quickly snatched up a "badge" from the "No on Prop 8" site and posted it directly above the ad. I was so embarrassed to have the "Yes" ad on my site.

CBMS, Los Angeles, California ,

Since when my sexual preferences afect the common person or should be voted by people that have no part on it or have no idea what beeing gay means or IS. First the black now the gay's, people need to worry about respecting eachtothers spacein this world. Life is short for me to wait on your vote!!

Carlos, Denver, usa

Sarah, this country was founded on discrimination. It's sad but it's true. "All men are created equal" meant white male land owners to the founding fathers. But the real issue is have we evolved as a country in more than 217 years. Prop 8 was wrong but don't distort history to further your point

Mike, Gainesville, FL, USA

Actually, our forefathers did NOT want everyone equal, which is why slavery was allowed for 100 years after writing the constitution, and women weren't allowed to vote. Do I think it's right? NO! But this is just the new civil rights battle that we'll one day win. One day, just not soon enough.

Connie, New Orleans, LA,

This proposition should NOT have passed! This just underscores the never-ending ignorance of people and their lack of tolerance. I thought there was suppose to be separation of religion and state? Is this what we want for ourselves and our children? Not passing this proposition is appalling.

S. Nicholson, San Francisco Bay Area, United States of America

I am sick that this proposition passed. It just gives fuel to the fire to take away more rights. "Marriage is between a man & woman" - yes,that's one definition ...but even moreso, it's between two PEOPLE who love each other and want to make a lifelong committment.

Debra, L.A., USA

What Prop 8 does is make homosexuals a second class citizen. The best way to think of it is this. There is a Water fountain for white people and smaller water fountain for black people. They both get the same water so why should they have to drink from the same fountain. It was about equality!

Harold Wheatley, Canoga Park, USA

If you actually read the documents are brilliant fore fathers wrote, the Constitution says very clear "All men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights...pursuit of happiness." We haven't fallen at all. Stop using fear and deceit to push your agenda.

Elizabeth Reyes-Fournier, Miami, USA

@ Cindy - Getting this country back to what it was founded on means voting on EQUALITY for ALL Americans, regardless of creed, sexual orentation, etc. It does not mean writing discrimination and hate into the constitution... this is no different than the racial discrimination of the pre-1960s era.

Mike, New York, NY, USA

Cindy Samu, in regards to your comment:
California's laws already provide protection against discrimination to anyone based on their race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. Why is it suddenly okay to discriminate against an entire group AND have it written into our constitution?!

Amanda, Pacifica, USA

The fact is, the proposition is discriminatory. Google or any other search engine would not allow ads to be posted that requested a proposition anulling the marriages of black people or Jews and this is no different, it's bigotry, pure and simple.

Natasha , Nottingham, UK

This is the same as someone using your land and putting up a political sign on your front lawn.
If you are an Obama support and someone put a large Vote for McCain sign in your front yard that you couldn't take down would you not be upset?

Hiliary, Halifax, Canada

It's not Google's fault who bought their ads. The same way John McCain bought ads slamming Barack Obama on NBC. Does that make NBC a supporter of John McCain? NO. Ads do NOT reflect the beliefs of a corporation. It's not discrimination it's called free speech and Ads.

Stephanie, Chicago, US

This country was not founded on discrimination. In fact, this country was founded by people who were sick of being discriminated against in their old country. It is an insult to their founding ideals of this country to discriminate against people, no matter what their sexual orientation.

Sarah , Los Angeles,

If u really our country 2 go back 2 what our forefathers fought 4 then maybe u should figure out 1st what they were fighting 4 before talking. They wanted everyone to be EQUAL. This is a hate prop that's all there is to it. Ya'll would complain if they were banning str8 people from getting married.

Veronica Ramirez, Dallas, TX, USA

Prop 8 IS about Hate. This country was founded on a lot of things that no longer happen today. Slavery used to be okay, and now it's not - that's not something that we are going to go back to. We don't make a big deal about heterosexual couples marrying so why should we care about gay couples?

Lindsay K., Buffalo, NY, United States

PROP 8 is not about hate, it's about people getting back to what this country was founded on. Go visit D.C. See how many times our for-fathers mentioned GOD. Lets all be idiots and tear apart what this once great nation was founded on. Come on people, have we really fallen this far?

Cindy Samu, Yucca Valley, United States

Whats the big deal? Obama bought tons of ads that went out to all the world whether they wanted or not. Turn it off if you don't want it.
It is a problem if and when google starts picking and choosing what it allows as ads (that are within their guidelines).

bob, idaho,

The issue is not one of censorship, nor is it one of liberals claiming more or less rights than others - it is a question of someone controlling the content of their own site and they should have the right therefore to control the tenor and the content of advertising on their site.

J John M Twiss, London, UK

What is missing from this report is that there are questions on exactly how these adverts got to be widespread, and whether the people placing them used incorrect and misleading keywords so as to get them placed on websites that would disagree with their message and should be able to turn them down.

Loz, London, UK

Oh, 'Hermann Göring', are you posting a message on behalf of 'Joseph Goebbels'? He was the propaganda minister after all...

Loz, London, UK

I don't CARE whether Google (or any other company) supports any particular political opinion. Google (as any other quote-unquote media company) should tread carefully when banning advertisements. I do care that a site a frequent does not have a choice in the tone of ads they are the conduit for.

James, Atlanta, USA

Why is it that anything liberal is acceptable and anything conservative is not? Google sold advertising and some people don't like the ads...what else is new? You can't make everyone happy. I see ads all the time that offend me but it is AMERICAN not to censor. Take a deep breath - wait for results!

Jean H, Los Angeles, CA, USA

About SF's prop 8: my humble opinion is why the heck homosexuals want to marry?
Is it maybe that they're not feeling fullfilled as they r and want that treat of society called marriage? If''d be need of extended benefits, they could lobby for full partnership under the law
To me is silly to insist

ViejoVizcacha, New York City, US

Bill - Can you please provide absolute scientific proof that there was "no before God"? Just a simple, or maybe not question for you. No one has ever been able to provide this answer to me and I really want to know. Cheers.

Eric, Seattle, USA

Indeed, Freedom of speech does not require a party to be a platform for the speech of another. (Carrying Google Ads is a contracted Service, however, and the terms of the contract are the issue here.)

Andrew Maloney, New York, United States of America

And when I visit the few Mens rights sites that exist, there are only Google ads for Womens rights sites on them (so what!). It stinks when it is the other way around, doesn't it! For American's, it really doesn't matter anyway. Pretty soon neither side will have free speech.

Kevin, Portsmouth, US

What's wrong with the ad? If we complained about an anti-Prop 8 ad on a Christian site we'd be told that we're intolerant! Grow some thicker skin!

LizG, Fredericksburg, VA, USA

Uh, Elizabeth from Edinburgh, there was no before God!

Bill, SLO, USA

I too saw the ads get run on my own sites; non tech related sites. It was surprising, but not a total shock; Google lets people buy ads just like the TV networks do.

David, Los Angeles, USA

Did you people read the article? Google's software allowed anti-gay ads to appear on pro-gay sites. This isn't censorship, the pro-gay activists just don't want their opponents' ads on their site. I'm sure the anti-gay site would be equally angry if there were a banner on their site supporting gays.

Matt, Gainesville, FL, USA

A yes vote on Prop. 8 is institutionalized discrimination. Period.

Manic D, Orange County, US

There were forms of marriage before 'God' entered the picture...

Elizabeth, Edinburgh,

As usual, those promoting "tolerance" are truly intolerant of opposing views. I fear for our free speech here in the US.

Sam, Grand Rapids MI, USA

I once worked for a media sales department at election time, and the law where I live says that media outlets cannot refuse to sell political ads if they are not slanderous or offensive.

BTW - the article is inaccurate about Prop 8 - it is not a "ban," it amends the state Constitution. Big diff.

L.N. Smithee, San Francisco, USA

Just look at who is supporting each side. On judgment day do you want to say you picked Hollywood over God? This is an issue of rights but it's the rights of families, parents and children that are being attacked.

King, Redding, Shasta

MARRIAGE IS ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN FOR LIFE. THE END. That's the way God set it up and that is the way it will stay. You may redefine it but man can't touch God nor change the way things really are. There will be an accounting some day soon AND GOD WILL NOT BE THE ONE WHO WILL BE JUDGED.

Larry Grizzle, OKC, USA

Banning ads or statements that you don't agree with? Wow what a novel idea why didn't I think of that?
Hermann

Hermann Göring , Weisbaden, Germany

I see, as long as YOUR agenda is the one being advertised it's OK, but heven forfend there's a "dissenting opinion". That's called "freedom of speach,press, etc" need I go on? You really should be thankful that here in the United States of America differing opinions are allowed. (used to anyway)

Lee G., Los Angeles, USA

So I presume pro-Prop 8 ads would have been OK? This is the essence of modern day "liberalism" - agree with me, or else your views should be banned. Modern day liberals - the supposed "tolerant" ones - are the most intolerant people around, as they cannot abide contrary opinions.

Eli Manning, New York, NY, USA

You'd think the brainiacs at Techcrunch would figure out how to use the competitive ad filter and url blacklist in their Adsense account to keep out ads they don't want. But then again, it's easier to whine than to do something useful.

Jeremy, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Kudos to CT.

And good luck in CA. It's time!

As a Justice of the Peace I look forward to officiating at the marriages (formerly civil unions) of same-sex couples now too.

Cheers,

Joseph A. Mustich, Washington, CT, USA