The Prop 8 problem: what are Californians thinking?

Barack Obama led the rest of the Democrats to a huge win on Tuesday night.  However, liberals across California suffered a major setback on Prop 8, which was surprisingly passed by a not so small margin.  

On the surface, the conservative religious groups such as those from Salt Lake were to blame. But I believe that the anti-prop 8 people ignored a very important group in California: the Latinos. Although we can count on most of them to vote for Democrats, they are also very devoted Catholics that value traditional definition of marriage: a union between a man and a woman.  Equality here may not worth much here.  

May be next time around, we should just abandon all benefits/rights associated with the magic word "marriage".  Those Constitution law scholars should think of some way that can change the legal definition as "unions", wherever financial and other benefits/rights are considered.  So, the religious can have their holy "marriage" still between a man and a woman while the others can enjoy the other rights/benefits.  

Isn't this what they ask for in the first place?