I'm not saying it would easily pass again if a vote were held today. All I'm saying this establishes is that opposition to gay marriage is not, in the community at large, a fringe view.

...in 2008 according to a possibly confusing ballot paper.

You cannot in any way extrapolate from that vote 6 years ago to how things might be now. No sir, you cannot.

Then I suggest you go read some opinion polls. Here's a relatively recent one: http://www.gallup.com/poll/163730/back-law-legalize-gay-marr...

Yes, a majority of Americans apparently now support gay marriage! Yay! But 43% remain against it. Of course, reasonable people could disagree about exactly what constitutes a "fringe view." But I doubt many would say that the term covers views held by 43% of the population.

So, yeah, maybe the ballot was confusing, and maybe that was six whole years ago. But I'd say it is, nonetheless, a generally pretty accurate indicator of people's views on the subject.