Slightly Bittersweet

Yesterday's Democratic ass-kicking was a special moment for many, including myself. Its been a long 8 years, and its been an especially long 4 years since W defeated Kerry in 2004. I truly believe in Barack Obama and I believe he will be a great President for our nation. Here's hoping that the Democratic party realizes that the time for action is now, and that petty legislation and partisan infighting will only waste what little time we have.

Sadly, yesterday's victory was dimmed a bit by the passing of Proposition 8 in my home state of California, a constitutional amendment which eliminates the rights of same sex couples to marry in the state. Those who are already married are grandfathered in, but no new marriages will be performed. (UPDATE: apparently that isn't quite correct. All those thousands of marriages which already exist may or may not be valid in the wake of Prop 8 passing. So congrats, California: you just might have instantly divorced thousands of loving committed couples. Real bang up fucking job there, people).

Props to the Mormon Church, who flooded the state with $25 million dollars in order to push this affront to basic civil rights. Lots of smarter and funnier people than me have pointed out how I-fucking-ronic it is that the Mormons would be pushing for the "traditional" definition of marriage. I guess they figured if they can't have theirs no one else can either.

I am straight, as are most of my friends, but I am in favor of allowing same sex marriages. There are lots of legal, political and scientific reasons I could bring up in support of this position, but it really comes down to one thing: life is short. Life is too fucking short.

If two consenting adults love each other and want to commit to spending their lives together, then "A Salut, God Bless" to them.

Several other states passed similar amendments or have done so in the past, but California was one state where passage was a sure thing going in. It would take either another amendment repealing the repeal or an overruling of these bans by the Supreme Court of the United States in order for Prop 8 to be voided, and neither of these looks likely to happen in the short term. In the long term I believe that gay marriage will someday be legalized in our country, most likely as a result of a Supreme Court decision on the subject and probably within my lifetime.

That setback aside, yesterday was a proud day for America, and hopefully the start of many more proud days in the next four (or eight) years.