All Over this Land

When I said I was content with the results of the presidential election, I was not thinking about--had not even heard about--the passage of Proposition 8 in California. The voters narrowly voted to repeal marriage equality in California. It's the first time since slavery days that a state has taken rights away from a whole class of people. It is a tragedy, and living in Massachusetts (where I can look my gay and lesbian friends in the eye, since they have the same rights and privileges I have) doesn't take anything away from that tragedy. However...

I remember when a liberal Democratic governor of Massachusetts made a new rule that kept same-sex couples from being foster parents. I remember when it changed. I remember when two lesbian friends announced at shul that one of them had legally adopted the biological child of the other, and we all cheered. I remember when the marriage equality decision was the ONLY cheerful political news in the state of Massachusetts that year. I am going to live long enough to remember when marriage equality is the law of the land.