Yes We Can

November 7, 2008

While i’m disappointed that there were enough people in California who are so threatened by my marriage to my husband Ted that they would pass Prop 8, I can’t let it overshadow the joy I feel about the election of Barack Obama.

Still, it’s disheartening to know that my love for my husband, and our equal rights, our civil rights, could be denied by so damn many people. Seriously? Are people really that threatened by the idea of me and Ted at home, making dinners, watching Law & Order, tending our garden, feeding our cats, planning our future? Isn’t that what married people do?

I want, though, to thank all of the people in our life who tried to stop the ban, who tirelessly made and carried signs, made phone calls, wore buttons and stickers saying NO ON PROP 8, told friends and family, sent emails, posted signs in their yard (in East County, no less!), their windows, their cars. Friends and family who called us, emailed us, comforted us.

People like the lovely family upstairs from us who made homemade signs and posted them in their window– who, like us, STILL have them in their window; Kelli, my student and dear, dear friend who volunteered with her teenage daughter, Melissa, to make phone calls, make signs, and held up those signs, proudly, defiantly, on a street corner in her not so tolerant neighborhood.

Ted, who pulled his hair out but kept going back and carrying signs, motivating people to join in, because that’s what he does (well, not pull his hair out, but stays dedicated to something he really believes in).

I know this is not the end. I know we will persevere and be stronger for it.

Yes We Can.