(Pictures taken at Nashville's Rally for Equality against California's Proposition 8, held on Sat., Nov. 15 .)
On Nov. 4, Americans voted for sweeping change -- an African-American presidential candidate from the Democratic party who holds a dramatically different outlook on domestic priorities and foreign relations than soon-to-be former-President Bush.
Included in President-elect Obama's policy plan is the promise that all Americans, regardless of socioeconomic status, age, race or gender will be represented. The not-so-lucky among us will not be swept aside any longer.
For this vote, I am thankful, optimistic and proud to have voted for Barack Obama.
The victory was sweet, but with the sweet came the bitter.
As millions of Americans voted to usher in change, Californians concurrently were deciding the outcome of Proposition 8 -- a "constitutional amendment" that strips away the right of same-sex couples to marry. This right had been granted to the state's residents just a few months earlier when the California Supreme Court found that prohibiting gay couples from marrying violated the state constitution.
Some 18,000 same-sex couples married between June 17 and Nov. 4. I am half of one of those couples.
It took until the afternoon of Nov. 5 to determine that Proposition 8 had passed by a slim margin -- 52 percent. The validity of the amendment has been challenged, and yesterday, the California Supreme Court ordered the parties to brief the Court on the following issues:
1. Is Proposition 8 invalid because it constitutes a revision of, rather than an amendment to, the California Constitution?
2. Does Proposition 8 violate the separation of powers doctrine under the California Constitution?
3. If Proposition 8 is not unconstitutional, what is its effect, if any, on the marriages of same-sex couples performed before the adoption of Proposition 8?
The road before us is long before this all shakes out -- months and months of waiting. Proposition 8 is getting the most press because of California's size and high-profile nature and because the outcome was the most surprising, given the state's tendency toward liberal views on social issues -- but its voters were not the only ones who simultaneously voted for change while contributing to what I've deemed "the backlash." Similar measures limiting marriage to straight couples passed in Florida and Arizona. Arkansas voters also passed a statute that bans unmarried couples from fostering or adopting children. The referendum was written specifically to keep same-sex couples from being foster or adoptive parents.
The election was more than two weeks ago, but it has taken me this long to write about it because learning the outcome of Proposition 8 was emotionally painful. It took time for the sting to mellow. Now, it simmers in the back of my head instead of encompassing it, but it takes very little to bring back strong feelings of disappointment and confusion.
Being in Tennessee since July, I was not in California to witness the scare tactics, to see the bright yellow "Yes on Prop. 8" signs, to feel the friction and tension. You see, I wasn't worried. When we moved in July, no one thought Proposition 8 would actually pass. Never before had Californians voted to take away rights. Even in the days leading up to the vote, when I started reading news stories that indicated the vote was closer than expected, the vast majority of friends said, "Don't worry." Only one said, "This doesn't look good."
A friend of mine who has two small children with her partner said she felt hated for the first time in her life. Her neighborhood was awash in yellow signs. I imagine she felt -- and may still feel -- like a prisoner in her own home.
Now, we wait. We wait, and we hope. We hope fervently that "change" will not pass us by.
