We are not equal - the abused second class Americans

[Shana A]

We are not equal - the abused second class Americans
Filed by: Guest Blogger
November 12, 2008 10:00 AM

http://www.bilerico.com/2008/11/we_are_not_equal_-_the_abused_second_cla.php

Editors' Note: Guest blogger Carlos Mock has published three books and is the Floricanto Press editor for its GLBT series. He was inducted in the Chicago Gay & Lesbian Hall of Fame in October of 2007. He grew up middle-class in the suburbs of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Four years ago we were used as a punching bag. Twenty referenda were added in twenty states singling out gay rights so as to turn out the Republican base. It worked: George W Bush was re-elected and we lost all but one if the referenda.

This year, an unprecedented turnout of voters went to the polls and elected the first African American President, however, gay rights were defeated in every ballot but one in the country.

We do not view these results as reason for despair. Struggles over civil rights never follow a straight trajectory, and the outcome of these ballot fights should not obscure the building momentum for full equality for gay people, including acceptance of marriage between gay men and women. But the votes remind us of how much remains to be done.