I understand the electoral college better than the House of Commons. When did this happen?
A lot of people have commented on how worked up and excited I've been about an election that's not even in my own country. This excitement has been fed into by compassion for the large numbers of Americans I do know and love, the prospect one day of living in America again, and yes, a little bit of fannish glee for that guy I was impressed with in the only Senatorial race I was following in 2004. (Who's celebrating his win by getting a puppy)
But above all of this: what happens in the States affects the entire world. Especially the UK, 'special relationship' and all. Our cultures are intertwined and unequally reciprocal; we consume American media and American society feeds into society. What is important to the USA becomes important to the world.
I do believe this. I believe that the American right, as endorsed by the Bush administration, has been influential in the rise of the far right in the UK. I won't put all the blame for Ruth Kelly and Nadine Dorries on the White House steps,but I do think that the powerful extreme groups in the USA provided validation for the extreme groups in the UK. If there wasn't a Creationism 'debate' in the States - if there wasn't a situation in which someone who believes the Earth is 6,000 years old could get so close (and yet so far...) from the vice-presidency of the United States, then Tony wouldn't have had the success he enjoyed in inserting his own religipolitical wedge into British classrooms.
What happens in America affects the rest of the world. And this morning I disagreed with Obama for what feels like the first time - you have not instituted change. You have installed the agent of change. You have made the first step, but you have not won. This is still not the world I want for my nieces and nephews.But it could be.
Now.
California, Arizona and Florida have voted to amend their constitution to define a word in a way that invalidates the love I feel, by making it unequal to the love once felt between Madonna and Guy Ritchie. Arkansas has kept children from being adopted into families simply on marital status (and of course not everyone can get married)
So it's not perfect. Attitudes need to change. The president elect does very much seem to be pro-equality and sympathetic to the gay cause, but he's also said it's not his priority - why should it be? Have you seen the financial and foreign mess he has to sort out? So those of us who do prioritise our rights to love freely have to keep on fighting. Maybe one day these changes will be reversed; we can only hope
But there are more sources of good news:
California has also protected the rights of its daughters to make a choice without notifying their parents. Colorado has protected not just equal opportunity measures, but also the rights of living women and scientists by not granting personhood to diploid cells. South Dakota has also failed to pass measures banning abortions. Oregon continues to let non-English speakers be taught in their first language, and Connecticut has decided to keep its constitution intact against measures to change it in these ways.
So for me, a queer female scientist who gives a damn about civil rights, there's reason to feel happy this morning. But please don't give up. What happened last night was important. But what happens tomorrow is more so.