Election Day

Like many of you I stayed up and watched a piece of history this evening. First and foremost, the historic level of participation - it was so wonderful to see a renewed enthusiasm in the democratic process after the past several elections. No matter who you were voting for I'm glad to see people got out and voted and participated. That in itself is a win.

I am happy that Barack Obama won. I listened to his speech, and have listened to a lot of his speeches and debates the past few months. If he's even half as good as he seems to be, I think our country has a lot to look forward to - there is so much to do and it's going to take all of us to get it done. I truly hope that unity for this country, and to the rest of the world, will be the #1 goal of the next 4 years.

I am a little sad and disappointed in the election. Four years ago, 16 states had "defense of marriage" amendments on their ballots - amendments targeting the banning the right of same-sex couples to get married - and they all won. It was about 4 years ago that I came out. In four years I have yet to have one bad experience, one lost friend, one negative thing happen to me because I am gay. And I have had many very positive things happen, including finding out that I am truly blessed with wonderul family and friends who love and support me unconditionally. For that I am forever thankful. I have participated in gay pride events, done presentations at work to many of the departments in my area on being gay and the importance of understanding the diversity in our country, and am going to be the GLBT representative on the IBM diversity council next year. I continue to direct and play handbells at church, work with the youth peer ministry group, and play in my bands. They all know I'm gay. Nothing bad has happened. So I guess maybe I have gotten to think that we really are getting past all the discrimination once and for all.

So, when I saw that there were three major "defense of marriage" amendment initatives in 3 states this election (Florida, Arizona - which defeated its amendment in 2006, and California, whose supreme court legalized same-sex marriage in June), and one amendment which I think is just absolutely hateful in Arkansas, which SPECIFICALLY bans same-sex couples from adopting children (not any unmarried couples, SPECIFICALLY same-sex couples), I was confident these things would fail. I knew we had to be past this. I was wrong. Florida and Arizona passed their amendments. Arkansas passed its amendment by a wide margin. California, the most liberal state in the country with the highest gay population in the country, is too close to call at this point. I feel like these are personal judgments on me. For over half the people in this country to go out of their way to say "you're a second class citizen because of who you want to marry, because of who you love", and to say "you are a worse parent than a child being an orphan". Those people voted yes on something that does not affect them one bit. Same-sex marriage isn't going to raise their taxes, cause the economy to fail, and is certainly not going to make their marriage worse or cause the destruction of society. And taking away good loving parents who would provide a good home to children who don't have one? Yes, that is a judgment on me.

I'm sure I will put this all in perspective tomorrow and in the coming days...for tonight though my faith in my country and humanity dropped a notch.