58 years old, out since age 18.
Two long-term relationships: one for 22 years; one for eight (current).
So, California voter, it's come to this:
you hold the fate of my relationship, the fate of my very future, in your hands -- in Proposition 8.
You get to determine whether the Constitution actually means anything, or whether it's just "a piece of paper," as the current occupant of the White House would say (and has).
Will the Bible (or the hard-right interpretation of it) hold sway over our civil rights -- or will the equal protection clause in the U.S. Constitution be the arbiter?
Will my partner and I have the right to visit one another in the hospital? Determine what medical care one another should receive? Determine what happens to one another after we die?
Will my partner and I inherit one another's estate automatically (the rights a heterosexual spouse has now)? Or will we have to pay exorbitant taxes on what one another owned, even if we bought them together and shared them equally during our relationship?
Will my partner and I have rights to one another's Social Security benefits? To each other's healthcare benefits?
Will we have the right to file joint taxes? Or, this many years after the Revolution, will "taxation without representation" still be true... but only for us?
Will we be able to adopt each other's children? Sue for the wrongful death of our life partner?
Will we have ANY rights at all under the law? Or are we merely second-class citizens?
California voter... are you American enough to ensure our equal rights under the law?
I hope the answer is yes. Because if it's no, you'll be setting us adrift in a Katrina of hate.
UPDATE: If you think YOUR stomach has been in knots over this election, imagine the knots in the stomachs of gay Americans, who have TWO important elections happening this fall.....