History
Eight years ago, I sat in an office excitedly watching exit polls that showed John Kerry with a lead in Florida and Ohio. By the evening, those exit polls had proven inaccurate enough to leave the states in the GOP column, and I felt the same disappointment in “Jesusland” (you remember those maps, right?) that 48% of the country did. In addition, eleven states passed constitutional amendments defining marriage as a union of one man and one woman. We had only a few months earlier been excited at the chance to show our President the door after an abysmal four years in office, only to have his efficient campaign machine triumph over a lackluster Democratic candidate. And the issue of same-sex marriage played a part in that, bringing conservative voters to the polls for an issue they apparently felt stronger about than the fate of the sitting president.
Four years ago, we endured a bittersweet night. Barack Obama won election over the strange ticket of McCain and Palin, but Californians passed Prop 8, altering the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, made legal just four months before. The Prop 8 vote was close, 52-48, and at the time I said “in another few years, or another decade, [...] these horrible laws they’re shoving into place now will be quietly removed.” Not so quietly, it turns out; the challenge to Prop 8 goes before the Supreme Court this month and people are more hopeful than they have been in years about the Court’s response to it. I believed then that we would win a popular vote, and I thought it would be within five years.
Last night, we watched:
* A president who endorsed same-sex marriage win re-election.
* Three states legalize same-sex marriage in popular votes. Three and oh. Not one of the three states rejected the law.
* One state defeat a one-man-one-woman constitutional amendment.
* An openly gay woman win a Senate seat.
And that’s not even mentioning the defeat of the two GOP candidates who spoke callously about rape, the victories made by women and women’s issues, Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth and all of it, but it’s all related. It’s all about treating everyone as a person, not as a set of labels. It’s what Obama said in his victory speech, “I believe we can keep the promise of our founders, the idea that if you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in America if you’re willing to try.” Americans yesterday voted for the idea that those labels do not matter.
This is history, folks, and we should celebrate the hell out of it. And then tomorrow or next week, get back to the work of making sure that history keeps moving in this direction. Because this amazing change over eight years didn’t just appear, it didn’t just magically correct because that was the right thing to do. It happened because people got angry eight years ago and they said “this has to change.” It happened because gay people like you and me became more open about our lives. We helped people move past the label of “gay” and on to the reality of “person.” We talked about the issues and we stood up for the things we believe are right and we understood that progress comes when we fight for it. We were willing to try, and we rolled up our sleeves and worked hard, and last night, we saw the reward.
Now let’s keep it going. I can’t even imagine what we’ll be seeing in four more years, but I cannot wait.
