The passing of Proposition 8 was one of the biggest buzzkills to ever hit California. So much for serving as a beacon of change to the rest of the country — our state fell in a domino effect along with Arizona and Florida to ban gay marriage.

We thought Obama’s tour de force would sweep up any dissenters, confident that our ideals would pull through on Election Day. However, in a state that prizes and cultivates progressives, the majority of California counties voted in favor of Prop. 8.

Why? Here in San Francisco, we are surrounded by and immersed in LGBT culture. We have the Trannyshack (R.I.P.), the fetish-and-bondage-laced Folsom Street Fair, and, of course, the Castro, with its bedroom-sized rainbow flag flying above the neighborhood’s love-saturated streets.

According to the most recent census, the Bay Area is the No. 1 American metropolitan area for gay and lesbian couples, while California boasts the highest proportion of same-sex couples in the nation. The rest of America, it’s safe to say, isn’t so lucky.

Beyond the state’s major cities, religion plays more of a central role in daily life. Prop. 8 supporters came from many churches, representing Roman Catholics to Orthodox Jews and citing the Bible in their tirades against gay marriage.

Blurring the lines of separation between church and state, the Mormon Church became Prop. 8’s biggest donor by taking advantage of government tax exemptions given to religious institutions.

But times are changing and tables are turning. Gay culture is permeating the mainstream bubble like never before. That leaves me wondering: how is the rest of America getting turned on to homosexuality?

Pop culture reaches the homes of millions and can be named responsible for much of America’s growing exposure to LGBTs, whether it be positive or negative. Lindsay Lohan (and her new girlfriend Sam Ronson), Katy Perry, Tila Tequila, and the king of Internet celeb gossip, Perez Hilton, are just a few unofficial figureheads for the new wave of gay and bisexual culture that got off to a running start when Ellen DeGeneres graced the cover of Time magazine declaring “Yep, I’m Gay” in the late 1990s.

Speaking of Ellen DeGeneres, TV has much to do with propelling gay culture onto a platform more visible to mainstream audiences.

“Television is a barometer in showing the progress that’s been made, as well as showing where work needs to be done,” said Damon Romine, director of Entertainment Media at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) in Los Angeles. “The images we are seeing on TV are ones that you wouldn’t have seen 10 years ago.”

Romine cites “Will & Grace” (one of the highest-rated sitcoms of the past 10 years), Ellen DeGeneres’ daytime talk show, gay and lesbian cast members of MTV’s “The Real World,” and the recent in-depth coverage of DeGeneres’ wedding to Portia DeRossi on “Entertainment Tonight” as helping America feel like they know these gay public figures and “can no longer say they don’t know anyone who is gay.”

Sheila Tully, professor of anthropology at SF State, believes that mainstream pop culture has a bad habit of promoting tired gay stereotypes.

“LGBTs have often been represented in some aspects of U.S. popular culture, ignored or stereotyped in others,” Tully said. “The range in terms of race, ethnicity, class, age, etc., are usually those that will resonate with the targeted audience and the show’s sponsors.”

Tully says that San Francisco’s own Harvey Milk, profiled in the new movie “Milk,” and other grassroots organizations are the ones that have truly challenged social norms enough to change the minds of Americans, not necessarily pop culture figures.

Geneé Scott, an English major and member of the Queer Alliance, also feels that pop culture does not wield its power effectively to open peoples’ minds.

“Pop culture is not doing enough,” she said. “If it’s just sex, sex, sex, you’re not promoting other aspects of life. By doing that, you’re allowing people to live in a matrix that doesn’t exist, and people vote based on that matrix, not on reality.”

Echoing many who are up in arms about the election results, Scott believes the answer is clear.

“You can’t call yourself American if you don’t believe in equality,” she said. “It’s an American ideal.”

Certainly, a fact that 52 percent of voters in California passed Prop 8 suggests a messy battle ahead for those on either side.

I have hope that our Supreme Court will raise its voice again like it did in June when gay marriage was declared legal. It was then that California became a true leader in the modern civil rights movement. We’ve lost our edge for now, but nothing can make me believe we can’t get it back.