If whites only voted, Prop 8 narrowly defeated.
Add in Hispanic votes and Prop 8 just barely passes.
Add in black votes, and Prop 8 passes easily.

Crunching the numbers to account for additional black turnout - 10% (of total voters) versus 6% and Prop 8 passes either way.

One reasonable assumption:
This vote was with suppressed Republican turnout and enhanced Democratic turnout.  IOW - this was theoretically a best case scenario in terms of party turnout.

Found a repeated sentiment of "Hey! It's not our fault!".  The No On 8 should have done a better job, whites aren't blameless and so forth.  I'm sure someone may have admitted that homophobes are not evenly distributed throughout the entire population, but I didn't see those comments.

Also saw assertions that all we need to do is wait until the younger, more tolerant voters tip the scales.  My best guess is that would take twenty years.  "Just wait." sounds a whole lot better than "Don't worry, in twenty years this will all change.".  What is unspoken is that the assumption that this will all change all by itself, naturally.  People won't have to be forced to confront their own bigotry or the bigotry of their families, churches, cultures or societies.  

Possible explanations:

1. Obama actually got more than 35% of the white vote and there was an insignificant reverse Bradley effect.  

2. Whites stayed home.

3. Obama's turnout machine was working on full cylinders and produced an electorate no one thought possible.

This profile piece from 2007 is clearly sympathetic.  Nevertheless, a couple of points are worth considering.

On gender:

... In his introduction, Dershowitz defended Summers's remarks about gender and science as honest intellectual inquiry. But Summers wouldn't have it. "I think it was, in retrospect, an act of spectacular imprudence," he told the class. He still maintains that some critics mischaracterized his remarks, but the bottom line is that girls around the world came to think that the president of Harvard believed they couldn't be scientists. "There are enormous benefits to being a leader of a major institution, but there are also costs and limitations," he continued. "I thought I could have it both ways, and I was wrong." Even when someone is defending him, Summers can't hold back from a debate.

On the Reich rift :

What's striking today is how much Democrats on either side of the 1990s debate agree with one another. Most say that globalization itself cannot be held back, because it stems more from the inexorable march of technology than from any change in trade laws. Credit-card call centers have moved to India and Ireland because they can function there, not because a new law allowed them to go. Trying to prevent jobs from leaving will create the problems that protectionism always had, like higher inflation and slower economic growth. But leaving the market to work its magic also won't do. Even the centrists within the party agree that the government needs to meddle in the economy more than it once did.