Big Changes, but still a long way to go.

I wanted to take a break from my regularly scheduled blog to talk about the recent events in our country. This gives me an opportunity to write down some of my thoughts and I invite others to share their opinions as well.

I believe that yesterday marked a great milestone for our country. The United States has elected it's first black president. Amazing. I was reading stories today about black centenarians, some who were the children of slaves. In their lifetimes, they have first hand accounts of what slavery was like, struggled for civil rights, and were able to cast their ballots for the first black president. It's taken over 100 years to reach this point. I will not say the struggle is over for black Americans, but yesterday, I think, belonged more to them than the rest of us. I heard an estimate that over 90% of the black population nationwide voted for Obama. I think that is wonderful. And I hope that because he got such a large percentage of the American People in general behind him, that he can be effective as the unifying force that he is making himself to be. Americans put their faith in Barak Obama yesterday, I hope he lives up to the expectations. I have a good feeling about him, that he will.

Beside the hope and joy I felt last night, and the pride in our country to prove that we have a wonderful working democracy, I felt anguish and frustration that we still have so far to go. I was able to cast my vote for the first black president on the same ballot that has the most hateful piece of legislation that has ever been my duty to vote against. The Florida Ban on Gay Marriage, or the "Save our Families" constitutional amendment. This passed by a narrow margin last night, and was up for voting even though Florida already has anti-gay legislation that already defines marriage between a man and a woman only. It just wasn't enough, they had to take it a step further and ban civil unions too.

"This amendment protects marriage as the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife and provides that no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized."

This is the vague legal language that is now written into the Florida Constitution. I heard people say that they were voting on this to protect the children. I just don't understand what that means. I know they wanted to be sure that "activist" judges could not declare that it is legal for gays to marry and that was the motivation behind this, but they took it way too far. And they got what they wanted, of course.

I did a lot of soul searching after the poles closed yesterday. I thought about the struggle that women went through to be granted the right to vote. I thought about the new president and how long it took for us to get him. I firmly believe that in my lifetime, I will be like those centenarians and see real change for the gay community and they will be able to one day marry the ones they love without so much controversy. I hope that day will come sooner for me than it did for the black community. I hope that we will be able to look back on the past and wonder what the big deal was. But I see a long road ahead and I hope that this new president will be the beginning of that change.