This is not a downer post
Because seriously, how down can I be this morning? You've earned that new puppy for the White House, Obama family!
But I was also frantically watching the count on Prop 8 and...yeah. Dammit. This must be a bittersweet day for a lot of families.
I was down about it, but this morning I've come to think it's not so much a failure or a loss as a step along the way that had to happen. The very fact that we're having this conversation is a sign of the inevitable progress here. Gay families are not going away, and they're not going to stop fighting for equality because they are equal. In fact, they're going to fight harder, because no matter how strongly people think they feel about other people marrying consenting adults they don't approve of, it doesn't compare to the feelings of someone actually being hurt by this. Or their loved ones who watch them hurt by it.
And all the children they're raising (without the protections other families have) are growing up living the truth about gay families, and showing that truth to their peers. That's a lot of happy, healthy, intelligent, totally not terrified of gay people adults leading the way on this issue. All the other side has to give up is irrational fears (and the idea that they can't legislate people out of hell, if that's what they feel they're doing by opposing gay marriage). Obama included "gay Americans" as a part of the USA in his speech.
Meanwhile I am really rooting for my state to be the next one for gay marriage. I think the only thing that's kept us from having it yet was the Republican senate blocking the vote. Let's go, New York!
And anyway, that's sort of how I'm feeling. Not really accomplished, but as if we can finally get to work. I don't know what's coming and I don't expect it to be smooth, but I feel more like the president kinda wants to work with me on this and that's so much more empowering than the way I've felt for a while now.
But I was also frantically watching the count on Prop 8 and...yeah. Dammit. This must be a bittersweet day for a lot of families.
I was down about it, but this morning I've come to think it's not so much a failure or a loss as a step along the way that had to happen. The very fact that we're having this conversation is a sign of the inevitable progress here. Gay families are not going away, and they're not going to stop fighting for equality because they are equal. In fact, they're going to fight harder, because no matter how strongly people think they feel about other people marrying consenting adults they don't approve of, it doesn't compare to the feelings of someone actually being hurt by this. Or their loved ones who watch them hurt by it.
And all the children they're raising (without the protections other families have) are growing up living the truth about gay families, and showing that truth to their peers. That's a lot of happy, healthy, intelligent, totally not terrified of gay people adults leading the way on this issue. All the other side has to give up is irrational fears (and the idea that they can't legislate people out of hell, if that's what they feel they're doing by opposing gay marriage). Obama included "gay Americans" as a part of the USA in his speech.
Meanwhile I am really rooting for my state to be the next one for gay marriage. I think the only thing that's kept us from having it yet was the Republican senate blocking the vote. Let's go, New York!
And anyway, that's sort of how I'm feeling. Not really accomplished, but as if we can finally get to work. I don't know what's coming and I don't expect it to be smooth, but I feel more like the president kinda wants to work with me on this and that's so much more empowering than the way I've felt for a while now.