Contrast

It didn't feel like a presidential victory in the streets of San Francisco. It felt like a revolution. Everywhere, there were spontaneous bloc parties with people filing out from their homes and parked cars (that was me, I just happened to drive by) and just, gathering and celebrating in jubilation of this historic moment. It was really amazing, walking around in the relatively warm and beautiful night and everybody was just, ecstatic, and excited, hopeful. It was absolutely incredible, and you just can't help but be teary eyed. Less than 50 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, America has a multicultural African American president. Obama's niece, Suhaila Ng, has my last name.



In the midst of celebration though, however, there was also angst. Prop 8, has passed in California. That is an absolute shame. Proposition 8 would allow the State to change the State constitution to ban same sex marriage. I am really angry about that, honestly. I don't understand how people can take existing rights away from others, whose biology they do not agree with. It is not a lifestyle choice, people. When did you decide to be heterosexual?

I have lots of friends whose life would be intimately affected by this. It pains me that more than half of Californians have just smacked them in the face and said they do not deserve equal rights, that in effect, they are second class citizens. And there are LOTS of rights written into the definition of marriage, as a state construct. Domestic Partnership is NOT the same as marriage, there are lots of legal rights that are affected, some of the following are:

• Not forced to testify in court against each other
• Make medical decisions on each other’s behalf
• Access to a decedent’s estate in the absence of a will
• Maintain life and disability insurance on a spouse
• Automatically hold property as tenants in common

For example, if a gay man is taken to a hospital, his partner cannot just go to his side, without first having to prove his partnership with tons of legal paperwork. For the rest of us? You'd just have to say, he is my husband and no questions would even be asked. That alone is ridiculous. Regardless of what your emotional response to a picture of two men or two women committed to each other for life, there is no reason to deny anybody EQUAL RIGHTS. The one consolation is that a big majority of young voters voted NO on prop 8, I suppose if nothing else, people will die off, and times will change.

But I'm still happy. Change takes time. And America took one giant progressive step forward yesterday.