Gays in the Age of Obama - It's Their Party and They'll Cry if They Want to

SAN FRANCISCO -This is the image Ill always remember from election night 2008.

A gay man standing outside the grand ballroom of the St. Francis Westin hotel in San Francisco. He had one finger to his ear to block out the hubbub inside, and an Iphone clamped to the other.
 Honey he was yelling into the phone. I cried. When Obama spoke, I cried.

Inside the ballroom it was bittersweet. Barack Obama was the president elect. But same sex marriage was being overturned by California voters. Prop 8 was winning by a slim margin, but winning. In Arkansas, an adoption ban passed. In Arizona and Florida bans on same sex marriage passed easily.
All this on a night when Obama swept the country in a landslide on a promise of change. On a night when pro-choice groups racked up victories. Even chickens had something to rejoice about in California.

In the end it seemed the gays were the scapegoats, the ones left behind at the back of the bus.
Had we asked for too much, too soon, to a country that was not ready to give us the full measure of our dignity?

It didnt seem that way in the ballroom of the St. Francis. In the heart of San Franciscos gay neighborhood, the Castro, it was New Years Eve come a few months too early. But not any New Years Eve - a once in a lifetime turn of the century.

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