Mermaid Musings

Out here on the west coast we didn’t have to wait very long for the Obama victory, the polls had barely closed when McCain conceded and Obama delivered his victory speech. Although some local and Senate races are still too close to call, we are, mostly, celebrating a great victory today. [Update: ballot measures, initiatives and propositions aside, our victory is complete!]

In California, South Dakota and Colorado, voters upheld reproductive freedom by defeating measures that would restrict abortion access. That’s the third victory on California’s parental consent measure, the second on South Dakota’s abortion ban and hopefully the one and final victory over a fetal rights measure that we’ll see in Colorado or anywhere. All in all a great day for women’s reproductive rights.

Unfortunately, this victory is tempered by the anti-gay measures that succeed in California, Florida, Arizona and Arkansas. Against all odds, US Americans are ready for a Black president, but apparently not even in California, where earlier this year the State Supreme Court ruled that marriage discrimination was unconstitutional, are we ready to afford the same rights to queer folk as to straight folk.

In my mind the defeat in California is the most crushing. Had voters upheld gay marriage in California, it would only have been a matter of time before New York, Massachussetts, Washington DC and other more liberal states would have followed suit. And then the queer liberation movement could move beyond the need for assimilation and started pressing for true liberation: a society in which people are judged by who they are and their contribution to their communities, rather than who they sleep with.

Yesterday this country took a great step forward in becoming a more humane nation, but our victories are not complete. As Howard Zinn commented almost a month ago, “Obama will not fulfill that potential for change unless he is enveloped by a social movement” that pushes him to fulfill his promises. Our work is not over, it is just beginning. But praise the goddess, we’re starting from a much better place.