It was with the deepest sadness that I awoke this morning and discovered that once again, via a ballot measure, Americans voted to deny equal rights to their fellow citizens. I cannot express the emotions that have churned inside of me all day, the feeling of shame that once again, we lived up to our worst instincts.
Surely, I thought, surely the citizens of Maine would let the wisdom of their elected representatives and governor stand, and show leadership on this issue. Surely the tide would finally turn.
But I, and so many others, were terribly wrong. So today, I feel sick.
What is it about Americans that when we are faced with moral issues at home, we consistently fail the test for years after the rest of the world has gotten with the fucking program? Yes, I swore right there, because that's how upset I am. In so many ways, we are the greatest nation on earth, but we are so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to moral issues. Europe ended slavery before us, they've decriminalized or legalized marijuana before us, legalized gay marriage before us. Not to say that all of Europe is a hotbed of civil liberties, but we really miss the boat sometimes. Whenever fear is invoked by someone, we curl up into a ball and start taking rights away from people. It has never failed, since our inception as a nation, we blow it over and over again.
Every time one of these votes comes on a ballot, we get "fear the queers" blasted all over our televisions and radios and newspapers. "They're gonna make your kids gay in the schools!" "They're gonna sue your church to force them to marry them!" "They're going to ruin your heterosexual marriage!" The same propaganda over and over again, and here's the thing: it's all a lie. Much like McCarthyism was a lie, or the Red Scare of the 1920's, or the idea that ending slavery would destroy the South. Well, that last one is kinda true, but only because they decided to attack the government over their right to treat blacks worse than their hunting dogs.
Oh, and of course, we can spend a trillion dollars to give people halfway across the world "freedom", all while killing thousands of them, but we can't allow gay people to marry and share the same civil rights as the rest of the nation. This, of course, would cost zero dollars and not kill anyone, but the thought of gay people having rights is apparently as scary to most of America as the idea of black people being allowed to marry white people fifty years ago. It's some godawful thing that'll cause the world to end, except it really won't.
My generation is solidly behind allowing gay marriage. We have the power to change the nation, but last night showed what happens when we don't vote. We get regressive white men running Virginia and New Jersey, and bigotry won again somewhere. Yes, the change is coming, but it's moving slower because too many people my age don't storm the damn barricades and bring change where it's needed most: the ballot box.
I guess I'll conclude this ramble by saying it's time for this to end. I'm tired of waking up after elections and feeling sick. I'm tired of my friends being denied equal rights. I'm tired of this nation being less than because people would rather be afraid than do the right thing. It is long since time to stop denying equal rights to people, all people, gay, straight, black, brown, white, male, female, whoever.