YAAAAAY!
You guys have probably seen most of this on Tumblr already, but I have to record some of the notable things that happened last night besides Obama winning.
1) Puerto Rico voted in a referendum to change its relationship with the U.S. Of the people who wanted this change, 65% voted that it become a state. It's not a state yet--changing from a U.S. territory to a state will take an act of Congress--but both Presidential candidates agreed to support Puerto Rico's wishes in that regard.
So it looks like there's going to be a fifty-first state. Oh, and a new flag.
2) New Hampshire has become the first state to have an all-female federal delegation. It also elected a female governor, Maggie Hassan.
3) Mazie Keiko Hirono is a whole bunch of firsts in and of herself:
a) the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate in Hawaii;
b) the first Asian-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate;
c) the first U.S. Senator born in Japan; and
d) the first Buddhist Senator. (Not, as you may have seen, the first Buddhist in Congress--that honor belongs to Hank Johnson of Georgia, who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006.)
4) Tammy Duckworth became the first disabled woman veteran elected to Congress and the first Asian-American woman elected to the House of Representatives from Illinois.
5) Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin became the nation's first openly gay Senator.
6) Texas--TEXAS, of all states!--elected Mary Gonzalez to the Texas House of Representatives, making her the first openly pansexual official in the United States.
7) Al McAffrey became Oklahoma's first openly gay state senator.
8) Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin of Missouri and Richard "Rape Is the Will of God" Mourdock of Indiana were both defeated--Akin by Claire McCaskill, Mourdock by Joe Donnelly.
9) Maine and Maryland both made same-sex marriage legal. These were the first two states to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote. (Washington may become the third state, but it is currently too close to call. Cross your fingers.)
10) Minnesota rejected a ban on same-sex marriage that would have been written into the state constitution.
11) Washington and Colorado both legalized the recreational use of marijuana.
All this--plus Obama's re-election--in ONE NIGHT. Not to mention that I didn't get the election results from the news--I got them from Barack Obama's Twitter.
It's like someone decided to cram all of the good and climatic stuff into the third act.
***
1) Puerto Rico voted in a referendum to change its relationship with the U.S. Of the people who wanted this change, 65% voted that it become a state. It's not a state yet--changing from a U.S. territory to a state will take an act of Congress--but both Presidential candidates agreed to support Puerto Rico's wishes in that regard.
So it looks like there's going to be a fifty-first state. Oh, and a new flag.
2) New Hampshire has become the first state to have an all-female federal delegation. It also elected a female governor, Maggie Hassan.
3) Mazie Keiko Hirono is a whole bunch of firsts in and of herself:
a) the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate in Hawaii;
b) the first Asian-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate;
c) the first U.S. Senator born in Japan; and
d) the first Buddhist Senator. (Not, as you may have seen, the first Buddhist in Congress--that honor belongs to Hank Johnson of Georgia, who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006.)
4) Tammy Duckworth became the first disabled woman veteran elected to Congress and the first Asian-American woman elected to the House of Representatives from Illinois.
5) Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin became the nation's first openly gay Senator.
6) Texas--TEXAS, of all states!--elected Mary Gonzalez to the Texas House of Representatives, making her the first openly pansexual official in the United States.
7) Al McAffrey became Oklahoma's first openly gay state senator.
8) Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin of Missouri and Richard "Rape Is the Will of God" Mourdock of Indiana were both defeated--Akin by Claire McCaskill, Mourdock by Joe Donnelly.
9) Maine and Maryland both made same-sex marriage legal. These were the first two states to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote. (Washington may become the third state, but it is currently too close to call. Cross your fingers.)
10) Minnesota rejected a ban on same-sex marriage that would have been written into the state constitution.
11) Washington and Colorado both legalized the recreational use of marijuana.
All this--plus Obama's re-election--in ONE NIGHT. Not to mention that I didn't get the election results from the news--I got them from Barack Obama's Twitter.
It's like someone decided to cram all of the good and climatic stuff into the third act.
***