The level of acceptance of gay and lesbian relationships in this nation, and even here in this traditionally conservative state of Florida, has increased dramatically just in the last ten years. But the passage of Florida Proposition 2 yesterday is a cold, suffocating reminder that the old prejudices are still alive. My joy and pride in the victory of President-Elect Barack Obama have been lamentably diminished by the news that the majority of my fellow Floridians believe it necessary to insert into the state constitution discrimination aimed at my loving relationship.
Do I take this personally? Yes. Of course. I am a gay woman who has been living for 10 years with my partner. We are committed to our relationship. We are a family. We pay our taxes. We work and play and contribute to our state financially. We support our local businesses with our earnings. We pay the same level and number of taxes as any other Floridian in our economic bracket. Yet we have just been told that we are CONSTITUTIONALLY uninvited to share in one of the most fundamental relationships entered into by human beings.
They are afraid. I am disenfranchised and discounted. No one wins in this. But they are right to be afraid. I am still here. And I am damn mad.
It was truly the most gracious thing I’ve heard him say this entire campaign. There is a sincere and warm-hearted man inside that suit, isn’t there. His words should be remembered and he should be remembered for them.
I called my daughters earlier today to make sure they had both voted. “Yes, mom.” “Did anyone cancel me out?” “No, mom.”
In the years to come my wonderful daughters, their sons and daughters, my sons in law — all of us will be telling the story of the day that the paradigm shifted in the United States. The day that the color barrier was broken for the most important office in the land, in the world. The day that we elected the best man for the job. The day we begin to heal our land from many wounds.
This has been such a long and painful campaign. Although I know that the next few months will be filled with nearly as much confusion and anger as the last two years, I will wait and simply enjoy the moment here.
In summation, I present myself to the GOP as a woman, and I repeat, woman, who has held a passport for thirty-eight years, a lip gloss-wearing soccer-volleyball-softball-gymnastics mom of five, who can carry a six-pack home to her husband like nobody’s business, whose will is firmly aligned with God’s will, a neo-natal conservative and legally savvy public figure, a border-watching, trigonometry-credited, breastfeeding, BlackBerry-tapping, cat-throwing maverick whose daughters are out of their teens, therefore immune to teenage pregnancy (although this is a private, family matter), and whose dad’s head (or an eerie facsimile) adorns a state airline.
Read this very well written, and cogently sardonic piece. You won’t regret it.
Watching the CNN interview with Sarah Palin today I thought something had crossed in the signals on my television screen. I could have sworn I was watching FOX news instead of CNN. I’m glad that Palin finally sat down and answered some questions on anything at all, but where were the follow-up questions?
Where was the follow-up on what Joe Biden actually said about Obama facing a crisis? All I heard was a syncophant asking “Can I ask you one last question?”
Where was the follow up on what Sarah Palin said about “real America?”
Where was the follow up on Sarah Palin’s role, and her husband’s role, in TrooperGate? She gets off with “my husband didn’t do anything that any good husband wouldn’t have done?”
Where was the follow up on Sara Palin’s comments on her having more executive experience than Barack Obama?
Give me a break, Drew. You blew a fantastic opportunity. Or did you?
My partner has worked for many years doing public relations for various singer/songwriters, both well-known and unknown. One of the fantastic talents she has become acquainted with over those years is the incomparable Janis Ian. This is a woman who was breaking barriers and making social waves before she was in high school. “Society’s Child”. “At 17″. Today she lives in the Nashville area with her wife, Patricia Snyder.
This afternoon we received an email from Janis regarding “Joe the Bigot.”
It was a nice, big sign.
When we got up this morning, it was gone. Worse yet, last night someone or someones had gone up and down the street next to ours, tearing down Obama signs and writing “nigger-lover” and other obscenities on people’s homes and cars. Admittedly, they defaced one McCain sign, but the rest were Obama. My assumption is that these hooligans are so stupid they actually thought “Hey let’s tear down a McCain sign - they’ll think it’s just vandalism then!”
Not surprising that it comes from the Bible Belt area. I was born to and raised by Eastern Kentuckians, and I lived for 20 years in South Central Kentucky, just a few hours from Nashville. The staggering beauty of the mountains and valleys would almost make one forget the dark underbelly of the past. Then you pick up the faint whiff of something old and moldy… the musty smell of something that’s been around too long without enough exposure to the sunlight. It sometimes makes it hard to breathe. This history making election year is exposing some of that mold and mildew to the daylight. And it isn’t a pretty thing. But it requires the dark. It can’t live long once it has been laid bare in the light.
My gut reaction to this last debate is that McCain showed his strongest start of any of the debates. He started well and then got dragged down by his own hurt feelings, indignation and anger. Obama owned the last half. So by that I would guess it to be a tie.
10:26: McCain is a smart alec. Not a nice quality in a potential president.
10:16: Education. Our lagging a threat to our national security? Early childhood education for Obama, new teachers, give them higher pay, higher standards and accountability. Make college affordable. Community service in return for tuition aid. His scores went off the charts.
McCain, the civil rights issue of the 21st century. Private school availability and affordability? Don’t throw money at it. Is he kidding?
10:11: Abortion discussion. Obama is pro Roe v. Wade, McCain is admittedly pro-life.
9:54: We must hold the auto industry responsible for fuel efficiency as well as trying to help them out. On to health insurance. Reiteration of the last debate.
Watching the lines at the bottom of the screen is telling. McCain is rarely going to the top. Obama is frequently going to the top. And apparently they don’t want talk about Joe the plumber.
