The gay civil rights movement has erupted into a caldron of emotions that shows no signs of waning after voters narrowly approved a same-sex marriage ban earlier this month.

Frustrated by a disappointing loss at the ballot box, opponents of the ban have snarled traffic with protests across the state, threatened boycotts and picketed outside Mormon churches, which contributed nearly half of the $40million the campaign raised.

The rhetoric in online chat rooms and forwarded e-mails has reached a fever-pitch with rants calling those who voted for the measure “homophobes” and tirades calling gays whiners and sore losers.

Opponents have blamed “dirty tactics” from Proposition 8 supporters, saying they painted the debate as children being taught in school about gay relationships and churches losing their tax-exempt status.

“It's one thing to lose; it's another to lose when the other side fought dirty,” Susan von Herrmann, an Oakland attorney who specializes in gay and lesbian estate planning, told attendees at a Palm Springs forum this month.

Same-sex marriage is an issue that resonates with many in the Palm Springs area, where rainbow flags, an icon of gay pride, flutter outside downtown businesses and adorn bumper stickers. The city boasts one of the largest gay populations per capita in the United States.

In the past two weeks, Palm Springs organizers have staged three demonstrations drawing hundreds of protesters. One protest grabbed national attention after an angry crowd swarmed a 69-year-old woman, chanted “Go home!” and stomped the Styrofoam cross she carried.

Questions abound in the aftermath of the election: What's next? Will protests and boycotts be enough? Or will the response from the gay community drive a deeper wedge?

Some fear a backlash and diminishing public support.

“I support gay marriage, but I think it's a stupid tactic to get out on the streets and polarize people,” said Bruce Cain, director of UC Berkeley Washington Center. “You're basically fighting your friends and allies. You're not fighting with the government. You're fighting with public opinion.”

‘Mix it up'

No sooner had the election results rolled in then the campaign for marriage equality was beset with infighting and finger pointing quick to assign blame.

Some question the timid tactics of the No campaign, which did not show same-sex couples, saying it failed to adequately answer hard-hitting ads.

“One of the weaknesses of our campaign is that we did not mix it up enough,” Terry Applegate, a local coordinator for the No on 8 campaign, told protesters at a rally last week.

Equality California has vigorously defended its mainstream choices calling their ads the best choice for TV advertising.

The criticisms also extend to the gay community's reaction to the ban with some questioning whether splintering opinions among gay rights activists threatens to weaken the movement.

Locally, gays and lesbians are divided, too, about the best tactic going forward.

Gay leaders have organized a boycott of businesses that supported the ban and on Thursday published online a list of Proposition 8 contributors called “Marriage Equality Index.”

Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet, who married his partner in October, has come out publicly against a boycott.

And others, a quiet minority within the gay community who supported Proposition 8, question the post-election stratagem that contributed to the California Music Theatre artistic director resigning in light of his $1,000 donation to the Yes campaign.

“It's unfair for them to be pushing their weight around,” said Palm Springs resident Dave Fluitt, a gay man who voted for the ban. “I think they have the right to (boycott) but at the same time they have to be prepared to see the rest of society turn around and say, ‘Look, you want to be hateful? We can do the same thing to you.'

“It's just a two way street in life.”

‘Invisible minority'

The 52 percent to 48 percent vote on Proposition 8 has not only divided neighbors — straight and gay alike — on this hot-button social issue, it also threw into legal limbo the validity of the estimated 18,000 gay marriages conducted since June 17, the first day gays and lesbians could legally marry.

In the days leading up to the election, public opinion polls had showed Proposition 8 going down to defeat. Many were caught off-guard by the election results.

Bloggers have taken aim at the gay community saying the energy generated since the vote should have been harnessed before the election.

“The gay community's minority status is often invisible,” said Joane Garcia-Colson, a licensed attorney working for a nonprofit in Palm Springs. “When we sit on the sidelines, they don't know who we are.

“And when we're not visible how do we expect to shape public opinion in our favor?”

While a disappointing setback for gay civil rights activists, public support for marriage equality has gained traction since 2000 when voters overwhelmingly approved the gay marriage ban the state Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in May.

But it comes as little consolation to gays and lesbians stripped of their right to marry.

About 1,200 same-sex couples wed in the Coachella Valley. Those marriages remain in a legal holding pattern.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has said the state will honor those marriages, but an out-of-state Christian law firm has threatened to sue if same-sex couples press for recognition. Most legal scholars believe the same-sex marriages will stand, but the issue is so sufficiently clouded that attorneys have begun recommending these couples also register as domestic partners.

The vote is not yet certified, but proponents of marriage equality have already promised to put the issue before voters in 2010, if legal avenues fail.

With the state Supreme Court agreeing to take up three lawsuits challenging the validity of Proposition 8, the court may - as it has again and again throughout U.S. history - carve out the civil rights of a minority group that few will question in the future.

“It would have been better to win on Prop. 8, but I think if the court rules that Prop. 8 is invalid, it puts an end to this issue. Otherwise you'll see this on the ballot and people's rights will come and go,” said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California.