After a tremendous drop to number two in Maxim Magazine‘s “Coolest States in the U.S.” ranking last year, California has now dropped several more rungs in 2009.
Today’s state Supreme Court ruling that upheld Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriage, caused the state to now lag behind most of New England and stand just above Iowa.
(Iowa, of course, legalized gay marriage, but medicinal marijuana is still illegal and there’s no surfing.)
Californians are swept up in grief and disappointment, wondering just when did they lose their edge.
Some point to when they elected a Republican governor, but he was an action movie star. Others believe it was when gays started acting too normal, getting married and adopting children that the state entered its giant middle-aged status. Still others point to the state’s financial troubles, suggesting that it may be time to “get over themselves and embrace corporate America, selling out or not.”
As mentioned Friday, Alabama managed to pull itself into 48th place in the rankings, upsetting Oklahoma, which is not Texas.