Theories abound over who tipped the scale towards Proposition 8 in California, and one has elicited more debate than most. Blacks have stated an overwhelming opposition to gay marriage, according to a CNN exit poll, and Charles Blow, an Op/Ed columnist for the New York Times, has some pretty strong guesses as to why.

For one, blacks are more likely to attend church than whites, specifically evangelical and other morally conservative churches. This places them more in the company of the Christian Right white voters of Arkansas and the Carolinas than their soon-to-be new president. These black voters may have democratic political and economic views, but socially and morally they're as conservative as Mr. Limbaugh himself. Blow calls them "Afropublicrats."

Also, marriage can be a sore subject for black women, who tend to vote in larger numbers than black men. Blow suggests this is because many of them are single mothers with broken marriages behind them, and they figure, if they're having such a hard time finding a decent man, why should all the good ones be allowed to marry each other?

Finally, because homosexuality is considered highly shameful in many black communities, closeted black men are more likely to hide their homosexual activities from their girlfriends and wives. This phenomenon, known as the "DL," for "down low," has caused an explosion of HIV and AIDS among black women, for whom AIDS is the leading cause of death right now.

Mr. Blow isn't blaming blacks -- he, after all, is black himself. He's simply sharing some valuable insights into why so many blacks hold what often seem like conflicting beliefs.

[Image: Till Krech on Wikimedia Commons]