Andrew Sullivan has a series of posts up today about the effect that this election is going to have on gay couples. Eleven states passed ballot initiatives that forbid gay marriage and, in most cases, even civil unions. It’s hate and prejudice under a thin veneer of “moral values” and “concern for the sanctity of the family,” aided and abetted by a president who eagerly uses the specter of worldwide, mandatory, UN-sponsored homosexuality as a goad to his evangelical base. It’s all very sad, and very frightening.
But Sullivan ends with one of the most lovely paens to hope that I have seen in a long time:
The minute we let their fear and ignorance enter into our own souls, we lose. We have gained too much and come through too much to let ourselves be defined by others. We must turn hurt back into pride. Cheap, easy victories based on untruth and fear and cynicism are pyrrhic ones. In time, they will fall. So hold your heads up high. Do not give in to despair. Do not let the Republican party rob you of your hopes. This is America. Equality will win in the end.
I think this applies to everything we’ve lost in this election: because they can’t take away our hope, our will, our strength. We can only do that to ourselves.
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Sullivan’s got it right, and not just re: gay couples. America’s becoming more urban, more urbane, and more liberal, I think. I know, that’s counter-intuitive in the wake of November 2, the demographics are there.
Worrisome thing now, is what this man will try and do to the country over the next four years….
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