One Stop Gay Shop: Get Out the Vote

So what happened Tuesday? There was traffic everywhere and there seemed to be long lines in random places…odd

Just kidding, it was the election! After 54 elections, after Presidents have served 56 terms in office, and after 42 other men have sat in the White House, President Obama remained the 44^th President of the United States; once again leading America into the future.

If you managed to go through life as usual- oblivious to the drama (still biting my nails over Florida :/) then you may need to rethink your country of residence. I hope you all got a chance to vote whether you’re gay, straight, black, Hispanic, man, woman, Democrat, ~~spawn of Satan~~ Republican…it don’t matter. We all had the opportunity to use our voice in determining the new…or should I say the continuing president of the United States.

In his speech (we’ll see if he delivers) President Obama spoke about unity, coming together, and the strength of the American people. And similar to what I just said mentioned: women, men, gays, straights…you get the point, he is once again championing the cause of minorities of all kinds.

The only president to publicly support gay marriage and he’s done it on multiple occasions, so I am hopeful that we are that much closer in our fight for equality. The election also gave us two, possibly three, additional states where gays can now get married, welcome to the club Maine, Maryland, and hopefully when all the votes are in, Washington!!!

November 6, 2012 was a memorable day for me: The first time voting in a presidential election (I was 17 for Obama’s first campaign) gay marriage is slowly moving forward, and I got to witness as our country once again put aside prejudice and discrimination to elect, in my opinion, the best man for the job.

Though Romney’s business acumen may have somehow led us speeding down the road to economic recovery, I fear that we would also have been led down another road…first stop: 1950 (see Kelly Clarkson's remarks here). Where women have two options: secretary or housewife, blacks have even fewer options, and homosexuality is considered a mental illness.

Civil rights…what a nuisance.

Now I don’t pretend to know anything about politics or economics, but what I do know is that the 314,712,000 people living in this country need to have an equal chance. I think I read that somewhere, I can’t put my finger on it, but I’ll get back to you.

For myself, social issues came before economics and that’s how I voted: for equality.

I look forward to the day when I can walk down the street and see a mixed gendered couple holding hands here, a same-sex couple holding hands there, and nobody gives a double take or rushes their kids to the other side of the street hands clasped over their oh so innocent eyes…yeah right

I am now more hopeful than ever that our time is coming, so I will be watching President Obama’s second term to see what he can do to make this country as great as it can be and also what he will be able to do to make sure that equality doesn’t remain such an impossible feat.

In the mean time I’m moving to Ohio where I can swing my vote away from the Gingrich’s, Santorums, and Rick Perry’s of 2016 if you remember this little ditty: