Approaching a shining future or cowering into the Dark Ages?

Of course this week has been pretty bittersweet, having an enormous victory at the same time as major setbacks. At the very least, we will have a Democrat in the White House that is at least willing to recognize that the nation contains all kinds of people and they are deserving of equal rights. Sadly, many of the same people who voted for that candidate don’t feel the same way.

First the “funny, but sad and true” from The Foggy Dew, WTF California?:

Are you seriously kidding me?

California voters outlawed gay marriage yesterday, but approved a ballot measure giving egg-laying chickens more rights.

cheap blue guitar wrote a very nice entry on it as well, pointing out that $73 million dollars were raised by both Prop 8 camps. Unconstitutional:

I have a message for all who supported California’s Proposition 8, Arizona’s Proposition 102 and Florida’s Proposition 2.

Gay marriage will happen.

It is going to be reality and there is nothing — NOTHING — you can do to stop it. You can spend all the money you have and tell all the lies you want to slow it down, but mark my words, one day, every citizen in this country – gay or straight – will have equal rights for all. Every single one of us.

It will happen.

I had a difficult time dealing with my anger over both McCain voters and those that voted against gay marriage, also single/unmarried-couple adoption in Arkansas. That last one kills me, actually. Close-minded straight people are pleased to take rights away from “their own people” as collateral damage to make sure those horrible nasty gays can’t adopt. It’s one of the reasons that I don’t like to ask what or who people are voting for and if they do tell me, they’d better be able to tell me why. There’s no question that in the presidential election there really were two Americas. Just take a look at the crowds at both McCain’s and Obama’s receptions/celebrations and you’ll see that. And I know that there are closed-minded liberals and open-minded conservatives, but it is really hard for me to reconcile the number of people voting for change that are saying “Um, we didn’t mean that sort of change, sorry!”

Count Four mentions that there’s a lot of anger being expressed by the GLBT community at the minority population that turned out in record numbers to vote Democratic, but also had the side-detriment of voting down gay marriage. While I can understand that anger, it’s not a good place for us to go. In addition to leaving people like me between a rock and a hard place.

In an interview that aired a few days before the election, Obama did reiterate that he believes marriage is between a man and a woman and is not in favor of gay marriage. But he also said the following regarding his opposition to California’s Prop 8:

[W]hen you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about.

Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them.

I would not expect him to pass sweeping laws allowing gay marriage, but the above statement tells me that he recognizes that just because he believes something, that doesn’t mean he would vote to enforce those beliefs on others. It’s really not that hard a mental leap to make.