We won the war but lost the battle in CA.

So I've been sick the past few days. Yes, sick of all the political ads and all the work on No on Prop 8 that I have done. But seriously sick with a sinus/ear infection that has had me down for the count for several days. It didn't stop me from getting up at 5:30AM on Tuesday November 4th to go and stand in line on a cold morning here in LA. (Upper 50's in the valley, rainy is cold to those of us who make southern California our home.) I parked my truck on Laurel Canyon Blvd. It's one of those busy valley main arteries that flows north to south. As I came around the 4 Square Church and parked the truck I saw the line of 50. As I walked up the line was around the corner onto Califa street. It was a diverse group of people reflecting the diverse little pocket that makes up my neighborhood, Valley Village. I called my daddy back in Kentucky and we talked about voting and what he had experienced back in his little polling place in J-town, KY. It took me about a 1/2 hour to get through the experience. Sinus infection or not I was going to be there to cast my ballot for Obama/Biden. Then I finally got to Prop 8 and I dabbed the ink pen to make my vote a big, fat friggin' NO! I almost cried when it was done. No seriously I was that emotional. Maybe it was the lack of sleep over the past three nights, the mental exhaustion of having to listen to ONE MORE stupid Yes On 8 ad that was targeting Hispanic woman and using children as bait or was it the relief that it was all finally over in that moment. And once I was done I knew that it was up to a power greater than myself to decide this outcome.

SO with OBAMA as the new President elect I sat and cried on my bed.
Honestly I did. An amazing moment in America's history. It has taken us 40 years to go from the Civil Rights movement exploding in this country to electing the first African-American President. Was I being too hopefully that history would change for us gay and lesbian American's with the defeat of Prop 8 that would ban us from being able to legally marry?

Granted I have made many jokes, improperly at the expense of my recent ex, that while I can't seem to find a man to marry me, it doesn't mean that I don't defend your right to get married. The truth is that I have always wanted to get married. I have always wanted to not pay as much in taxes just because I will always be considered a "single" man even if I do have a partner. There is something to being "accepted" under the law as one half of a legally married partnership.

Maybe it is too much to ask at this time?
It wasn't that long ago that they came into gay bars and rounded us up and took us to jail. It was in 1973 that the APA removed homosexuality from it's list of mental disorders. When AIDS hit we fought through it and moved forward to save lives with the help of groups like ACT-UP. Am I being too hopefully to want to finally be considered an equal citizen in the United States?

I THINK NOT.

I hope that people will continue to go to the courthouses in California
(Pronounced: Cal ee forn ee ya) and ask for marriage licenses and then sit in until they are given one or arrested. Hell if I had a man I wanted to marry I would be there doing it myself. I find that I will have to support this movement for equality in another way, through writing something hysterically funny and popular so that the next time this thing rolls around people will think twice before they press their blotter down and vote to discriminate against me.