Saturday, November 8, 2008

Congratulations to President Elect Obama

Well the election has finally come and gone, now we shall see how things fare for the next four years. I am optimistic about President Elect Obama, I think he can help to get our country on the right track. He has an enormous job ahead of him, so I hope and pray that he can accomplish his goals.

It was a bittersweet election for me in that while my choice for President came to pass, a number of important issues failed. Namely, Florida, Arizona and California managed to ban gay marriage. As well as Arkansas passing a law targeted to prevent gay citizens from adopting children. It is shameful that there are still so many people out there who are so very willing to deny civil rights to others. What I thought was curious was the breakdown of voters on Proposition 8 in California. The African/American voters by a very large percentage (over 70%) voted to place a ban on gay marriage. This at a time when the first black man was elected to the highest office in the land. As a group, African/Americans know better than most the detrimental effects of discrimination and have suffered enormously the denial of basic civil rights, and yet they voted 3 out of 4 to deny the civil rights to another minority. What the hell is that about? Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to blame African/Americans it's just that those numbers seemed remarkable to me. Unfortunately bigotry comes in all colors and classes. Our struggle continues.

I should not be surprised though, because every single election the issue comes up to try to deny women the right to privacy as regards Roe vs Wade, and the abortion issue. Abortion and gay marriage are moral issues and as such have no place in the political arena, these things are up to the individual and his or her "God," whatever they may conceive him to be.

A dear friend and I were discussing these very subjects and he told me that at least Obama mentioned gay people in his acceptance speech, stating that he never heard any other President mention them. The thought that went through my head was "Am I supposed to take consolation from the fact that President Obama can pronounce a three-letter, one syllable word." It's not enough. As a gay man I deserve the same rights as any other citizen of the great country. Who I would choose to marry shouldn't be any part of the governments business.