Yes we can

There was honking and shouting, singing and dancing in the streets, and all this raw hopeful energy pulsing through. Obama is president elect. Obama is president elect. Yes we can! Obama! It hasn't quite sunk in yet. I'm still kind of love-drunk, but I feel hopeful for the future.

I feel hopeful even though bans on gay marriage were passed in Arizona and Florida, and, by all appearances, California. You'd have thought that if it could fail one place, it'd have been here. At least out of these three. They say not all the ballots have been counted yet in some of the coastal counties, where opposition was stronger, but things are looking bleak.

So, are we willing to accept this as the cost of an Obama presidency? I'd say yes and no. A woman on my shuttle who's very active in the gay community said she was feeling pretty awful last night and only slightly less so on considering that if she had to pick one or the other - Obama or no on 8 - she'd probably have had it this way. I said yesterday on more than one occasion that with the record turnout we saw this election, I'd have to respect whatever happened as the will of the people. Don't get me wrong, I feel strongly that a constitutional amendment denying rights to some citizens should never been on the ballot in the first place. Such things should absolutely not be possible or even legal, but this is the system we have and these are the cards we have been dealt.

On the brighter side, propositions for abortion limits appear to have been defeated in both California and South Dakota, which suggests to me that what we need is a more open debate on the gay marriage issue. I don't know that this issue is really up for debate for people in either camp, but with so many people feeling so strongly, repealing this now is going to take a much more focused and involved effort. We will need to get to know these people, the yes voters. We will need to have a real dialogue to find common ground rather than isolating ourselves further. If there is a distinction to be made between civil rights and religious ceremony, let's make it. Let's at least make that. If gay marriage isn't about civil rights, let's pass legislation that guarantees equal rights to all.

It's not the same thing, I know that, civil unions and marriages, but I feel hopeful. Things are not in the position they were this time yesterday, but I feel hopeful. If we need a 2/3rds majority, let's do it. If we can elect a black man to the presidency of a country where slavery was legal 200 years ago, where blacks were only 3/5ths of a person and couldn't even vote, we can do this. Yes, we can.