Opponents of Proposition 8, which outlawed gay marriage in California, protest in the shadow of Los Angeles City Hall last weekend (Getty Images)

On November 4, voters in three states — Arizona, California, and Florida — amended their constitutions to ban gay marriage. But it’s California’s Proposition 8 that is drawing the strongest response from the gay rights community.

Unlike Florida and Arizona, where existing statutes already prohibited gay marriage, same-sex marriages were legal in California from June through election day (the California Supreme Court had overturned a gay marriage ban in May). Money from across the country flooded both camps, making it the most expensive cultural ballot measure in California history and the second most expensive campaign this year, behind only the presidential race.

The passing of Prop 8 was particularly difficult for the gay rights community — and satisfying for the measure’s backers — because California is considered to be among the more socially progressive states and many believe as goes California, so goes (eventually) the nation. Indeed, when the Connecticut Supreme Court issued its ruling in early October paving the way for gay marriage in that state, it cited the California Supreme Court ruling 15 times, calling it of “the most persuasive sister state precedent.”

Protests were held across California following Prop 8’s passage and opponents are mounting a legal challenge backed by local municipalities. But this weekend, the protests go nationwide.

“To say it’s only California’s problem is to say that ’separate but equal’ in the South was only their problem,” Jill Roat, a University of Colorado student organizing a protest in Denver, told the Rocky Mountain News.

Users on social networking sites are stirring up pro-gay marriage forces and a website launched last week to push for nationwide protests this Saturday. Rallies will be held in Denver, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, and across the country.

In 2006, 55 percent of Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Per Nevada law, voters must approve proposed amendments in two successive elections before they become law. In 2000 and 2002, Nevadans did just that, voting in favor of amending their constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

New Mexico is one of three states to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere — New York and Rhode Island are the other two. The state does not have a citizen initiative process. Alexis Blizman, former executive director of Equality New Mexico, told the Bay Area Reporter that the LGBT community in the state is closely watching how events unfold in California and estimated that at least 100 gay couples from New Mexico are among the thousands whose once-legal California marriages are now in jeopardy.