When I left for my class last night, McCain was winning due to the odd fact that only two states had reported their results: Kentucky & Vermont. I had a blast reviewing the folk dances I had learned and got home slightly before 8 PST. I rushed to the TV & turned it on just to find some sort of banter going on. I closed curtains and got ready to settle in for a long night of “too close to call,” when my eyes fell on the clock – 7:59 – and then on the TV screen, which displayed a picture of Barack Obama with the words “44th President of the United States of America.” What?!? Could this be? And then the announcement came, reaffirming that the presidential election was over and we have taken back America! Amazing! I did not expect such great news so early in the evening! Way to go, East coast!

The only dampening of my joy came from the Prop 8 results: California now has an amendment to our constitution that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman. We are not the 30th state to do something like that – and 5 million people saw it fit to impose that restriction, and their religious values, on the rest of the state! The Proposition passed by about 400,000 votes! How easy it is to enshrine injustice and discrimination into a constitution. Disgusting.

So, while I am excited about the Obama/Biden team moving into the White House to restore the US, starting with our reputation, I am reminded by the Prop 8 results that bigotry and double-standards are still alive and well in this country, at least when they’re directed toward the LGBT community.

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