golen pens and ink on notebook

Hope and Despair

Karin Kallmaker LIFE + STYLE

It’s probably ill-advised to post anything to my blog when I’m overly emotional. Last night, at 8:01 Pacific, when the presidential election was called, I had tears in my eyes. But like in 2000, by the time I went to bed, tears of joys had turned to tears of hurt and disbelief. Hope. Then despair.

We’re second-class citizens, once again. Change has come to America, except for us.

All the polling suggests that when gay people in California gave money and support to our new president-elect, we empowered the very force that has stripped us of our civil right to marry.

The pain of the irony is heartbreak, plain and simple, all over again. Sorry to be a downer, folks. Sorry if my grief over loss of my civil rights gets in the way of your joy in this moment in history – it certainly got in the way of mine.

 
Amish quilt of wedding rings

People are saying last night was the happiest of their life. I would have loved to have been able to say that, too. I had two hours of euphoria, at least. I know full well how everyone else feels, because I felt it too. It would be nice if there was any recognition from straight America that they know how we feel to have had equality dangled in front of us, only to be taken away via Proposition 8 by our enemies – and our allies.

Previous posts about the right to marry in California:

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