The director of a leading nonviolent US task force for lesbian and gay people, which includes many religious believers, has said that the election of Barack Obama is “a day of blessing seasoned by loss,” given the bigotry of some local issue votes.

Soulforce, a gay action group co-founded by one of Jerry Falwell's ex-workers, has sent condolences to his family and friends upon news of his death. A beacon of the religious right, Falwell implacably opposed homosexuality.