This week former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin gave an on camera interview as a turkey was being slaughtered in the background. As she spoke about how the media was certain to criticize her for pardoning a bird, the turkey got butchered. Only days earlier, Palin was offered $7 million for her memoirs.

President-elect Barack Obama garnered $1.9 million for three books. So who's the turkey here?

Another post-election conundrum is the new energy found in the gay rights movement after passage of Proposition 8 – the California constitutional amendment that bans gay marriage.

On Election Day, gay rights advocates got trounced. In Arizona and Florida, as well as California, voters approved measures banning gay marriage, and in Arkansas they banned gay couples from adopting or fostering children. Traditional suit and tie gay activists warmed up their fax machines, signed off on their condolences (there's hope in New York) and left it for another day.

But it wasn't to be.

Anger at the notion that it is fair or democratic to vote on rights already sanctioned by California's Supreme Court had been fermenting on the Internet since the announcement that Proposition 8 would make it on the ballot. California's anti-gay initiative was a game changer, because in that state blissful gay and lesbian couples were already marrying.

Gays, lesbians, friends and allies by the thousands spilled into the streets of California to protest the new measure that took away the right of gay couples to marry.

Proposition 8 failed to settle the gay marriage issue in California. Instead it serves as a reminder to gay activists of the lengths gay marriage foes are willing to go to keep gays at bay. It has simultaneously managed to embolden gay marriage ban proponents and energize gays and lesbians.

This week, the state Supreme Court agreed to review three lawsuits challenging the validity of Proposition 8. That's not an endorsement of gay marriage. In fact, scholars say gay activists have a very slim chance of convincing the court to throw out the gay marriage ban.

Even so, a ruling won't end anything either. Both sides have already announced they would fight any decision. Proposition 8 proponents say they would work to oust any state Supreme Court justice that votes to invalidate the gay marriage ban, while opponents of Proposition 8 have already indicated that if their bid fails, they would seek to place a pro-gay marriage constitutional amendment on the 2010 ballot.

All this left bloggers ready to stuff and cook those traditional suit and tie gay activists who they blame for the loss in the first place. Prominent Atlantic columnist Andrew Sullivan recently posited on his blog: Is the Human Rights Campaign relevant? Openly gay Sullivan argues that the nation's largest gay and lesbian rights organization failed the gay rights movement in California.

“How many struggles do we have to wage with these people always, always failing to lead – before we demand accountability and reform?” Sullivan wrote earlier this week. “Losing a battle this important should mean, at least, the rolling of some heads. Or we have no accountability at all. What are we: the Bush administration?”

Wayne Besen, president of Truth Wins Out, a group dedicated to exposing the ex-gay myth, sounded a similar tone when he applauded the efforts of two bloggers who managed to pull off national protests in 300 cities against Proposition 8 with simple text messages and Internet-based social invitations.

“[At the rallies] there was an injection of raw energy and an infusion of new inspiration that has eluded our movement for more than a decade,” Besen wrote on his group's blog.

Was Proposition 8 a winner or a turkey? Just pass me the cranberry sauce.

And it was our own Gay Entertainment Report that brought me news that Tori Spelling's gay-themed film Kiss The Bride – best described as My Best Friend's Wedding with a gay twist – is now available on DVD.

The Gay Slant is a feature of On Top Magazine. Walter Weeks is a writer for On Top and can be reached at ww@ontopmag.com.