The four city wards won by President Bush on Tuesday - which include Mount Washington, Mount Lookout, Covedale and Sayler Park - all voted overwhelmingly to approve Article XII when it first appeared on the ballot in 1993.

Tuesday, those four wards shifted as much as 22.2 percentage points toward the repeal of Article XII, which prohibited City Council from passing a gay rights ordinance for 11 years.

Gay rights supporters said the across-the-board shifts in opinion on Article XII in every ward in the city show a growing acceptance of gays and lesbians. Even other socially conservative neighborhoods, such as Westwood, Price Hill, Hyde Park, College Hill and Mount Airy, showed some of the biggest movement.

"We improved most where we did worst in 1993," said Gary Wright, the chairman of the pro-repeal Citizens to Restore Fairness. "And if you look at the range of differences, we improved at least 5 percent everywhere."

Such a reversal in a city with a nationally known conservative reputation was surprising enough. But the repeal also happened as voters in Ohio and 10 other states overwhelmingly approved gay-marriage bans, and exit polls showed "moral values" rivaling the economy as the top issue in the election.

Votes consistent

But in Cincinnati, the results of the two gay rights issues on the ballot showed remarkable consistency. While Issue 1 - a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage - passed statewide and in Hamilton County, 52.9 percent of Cincinnati voters opposed it.

That's about 1 percentage point less than the result of Issue 3, the vote to repeal Article XII. It's a difference that might be explained by the fact that some religious leaders - notably, Roman Catholic Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk - opposed gay marriage but said Article XII was too intolerant.

Still, the changing attitudes in some of Cincinnati's most affluent neighborhoods suggest that the most powerful argument for the repeal of Article XII wasn't morality or discrimination, but economics.

Procter & Gamble, the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and the Convention and Visitors Bureau urged voters to repeal the amendment, saying the anti-gay rights law was hurting their ability to recruit talented professionals, locate businesses and bring conventions to town.

About 20 percent of business leaders said they believed that Article XII hurt their ability to attract employees, and 44 percent said the measure had hurt the local economy, according to an unscientific survey of business leaders released five days before the election by the Lois and Richard Rosenthal Institute for Justice at the University of Cincinnati. Only 5 percent said the city law had helped.

"There's a split in the Republican party right now, between fiscally conservative East Side Republicans who don't have a big taste or fervor for social issues the way the rest of the party does, especially those on the West Side," said Nick Spencer, a former Republican who founded the young professional group Cincinnati Tomorrow.

GOP: No position

Unlike 1993, when the GOP supported Article XII, the Hamilton County Republican Party did not take a position this year. The Democratic Party and the Charter Committee endorsed its repeal.

"I couldn't be happier that the Republicans were the ones who beat it. It's a hilarious irony," said Spencer, who ran for City Council in 2003 as a progressive Charterite.

But while every ward in the city moved toward the more liberal position on Article XII, the smallest gains for gay rights supporters came in Cincinnati's African-American neighborhoods.

Voters in Cincinnati's Ward 7 - a middle-class, predominately African-American ward that includes Bond Hill and Roselawn - moved little since 1993, and voted again to keep Article XII. Article XII saw similar support in Avondale, Evanston, Over-the-Rhine, Walnut Hills and the West End.

The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, the great civil rights leader, took a prominent role in the campaign against the repeal effort, saying the repeal effort would amount to "special rights" for gays and lesbians. Voting patterns suggest that the "save civil rights and marriage" strategy resonated with African-American voters.

"It sounds like they managed to do a better job of holding those communities," said Gene Beaupre, a political scientist at Xavier University and observer of city politics.

Population shift

Not all the same people were voting on Issue 3 this year as voted in 1993. The city lost 10 percent of its population in the 1990s. A high turnout in the presidential election also meant that 31 percent more people voted on the issue this time.

"I think two things happened," said Peter G. Witte, a Republican who's president of the Price Hill Civic Club. "The makeup of this city is significantly different. I'm speaking now for Ward 25, which would have been staunch Catholics, staunch conservatives, and they no longer live here.

"I also think people are less passionate about that issue."

Witte's Covedale precinct voted 77 percent to enact Article XII in 1993, but only 57 percent to keep it.

Phil Burress, who led the anti-repeal Equal Rights Not Special Rights campaign, said it's undeniable that the city has become more liberal and Democratic over 11 years. But he said Tuesday's result should not be read as a repudiation of what Article XII accomplished.

Article XII prohibited City Council from granting "minority or protected status, quota preference or other preferential treatment" on the basis of homosexual orientation. Its main effect was to strike down part of a 1992 human rights ordinance that protected gays and lesbians from discrimination.

The 1993 charter amendment, also known as Issue 3, passed with 62 percent of the vote.

"To compare the two Issue 3s, 11 years apart, it's not the same thing," Burress said. "It's one thing to push special rights through legislation, and another thing to repeal a charter amendment that's perceived to hurt Cincinnati's image. More than likely, that sold with people like the Chamber of Commerce."

Gay rights supporters say they have no immediate plans to lobby for a new gay-rights ordinance. If they do, Burress promises he'll be right back with a ballot measure to reinstate Article XII.

In several Cincinnati precincts, 20 percent or more of voters split their vote on state Issue 1 and the city repeal.

For example, in Bond Hill's precinct 7-F, voters rejected the state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, 52 percent to 48 percent. But 61 percent also voted to keep Article XII.

But in other precincts, like Over-the-Rhine's 10-F near Findlay Market, most voters approved the gay marriage ban but also voted to repeal Article XII.

There has been speculation that voters were confused by the language used in the state and city measures. But Burress said voters knew what they were doing.

"We're not claiming confusion. I'm not going there. They beat us. They won. The people have spoken, and I'm not looking for excuses," he said.

Staff writer Ken Alltucker contributed. E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com