This and that

I had just started my drive home from work last night when NPR called Ohio for Obama. "YES!!" I shouted, to no one. That was the moment when I started to let go of my mental white knuckles and believe that maybe this one would go our way. Later in the evening, as the clock turned to 8 pm PDT and the networks all called the election for Obama, we cheered quietly, so as not to wake up the kids, as our neighborhood erupted in shouts of celebration. We felt elated, relieved, and proud. For the first time in my adult life, I felt really proud to be an American. On the phone this morning, friends kept saying "We did it!" And we did. Wahoo!!

And yet, there's a moderately-sized part of me that just feels like throwing up. Watching Proposition 8 pass in California and the other anti-gay measures in Arizona and Florida and Arkansas made me wonder when we'll ever be done with throwing rocks from glass houses.

I was listening to NPR on the way to work today as they interviewed person after person who said, of Obama's election, I never thought I would see this day in my lifetime. While I would never presume to compare the struggles of African American people with those of gay and lesbian people, I feel kind of that way myself. I hope that I do see the day when we, too, have the right to marry and raise our children without being discriminated or legislated against. And even though today is evidently not going to be that day, I hope it comes sooner rather than later.