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Last Tuesday, election night, I spent 4 worrisome hours at the watch party for Yes On 1. My friends, hundreds of LGBTQ individuals and allies, and I were eagerly waiting for election results in a crowded Holiday Inn ballroom. We had two things to worry about: one, that Question 1, the marriage equality question, would not pass, and two, that Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate who openly declared, if elected, he would change the Constitutional definition of marriage to forever exclude same-sex couples, would become the 45th President of the United States.
We received both answers within minutes of each other:
Obama had beaten Romney, Question 1 had passed.
This photo of me and my friends at the Yes On 1 party was taken moments after the results came in:
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| Yes On 1 Watch Party, image by Portland Press Herald. (Yes, I'm the one in the bowtie) |
The stress of the past four-months had been relieved in one second. The worry that we would be told by our neighbors that we are unworthy of happiness, that citizens of the United States would actively elect a candidate who wished to thwart LGBTQ forever, vanished within moments; worry replaced by pure euphoria.
I cried. I sobbed, from excitement, surprise, and cathartic release. I hugged dozens of complete strangers. People I don't even know asked if they could hug me, just because they needed someone. I dive tackled my boss, who is now able to officially marry her fiance. I watched as couples, young and old, embraced and cried over the fact that they are now able to be seen as acceptable human beings under the law. I saw a young girl, about 5-years-old, look up at her two mothers and say, "Does this mean we're a real family now?" I witnessed the lives of hundreds of people be changed. Radically, intensely, forever altered.
I am proud of America. And I am proud of Maine. I am proud that we have stood and made our voices heard. We let the country know that civil rights should not be destroyed, they should be restricted, and they should not be ignored.
And yet I still see people upset. I see people stating that this election "should not have been about civil rights." I don't know if this is because people don't know what was at stake: Constitutional changes of marriage, ending of government funding to Planned Parenthood, overthrowing of Roe vs. Wade, the support of a politician who did not support the The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the citizenship of immigrant children, and the redefinition of rape were on the table, just to name a few. We did not have a candidate who ignored civil rights, we had a candidate who wished to destroy them. Now was our only time to act. And, luckily, we did.
Civil rights should always be the highest priority of any election. Having politicians in office who respect the rights of all citizens is nonnegotiable. If a vice presidential candidate makes a comment referring to rape as "another form of conception," while simultaneously financially supporting another politician who says rape is "God's will," it is the duty of the citizens to make sure they are held accountable for their actions. And, needless to say, they should not be considered for the second highest office in the United States.
But, who knows, maybe these people screaming "this election should not have been about civil rights" are right. Maybe this election shouldn't have been about civil rights. Because life should be about civil rights. We should always worry about civil rights, not only address them once every four-years. Civil rights cannot wait. Fair and equal civil rights should be something we work towards daily. Period.
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