Power of the Pink

My best friend’s grandmother always said, “Sometimes you gotta laugh for cryin’.” I always thought that Grandma Jeffrey’s homespun philosophy perfectly summed up American politics.

On Super Tuesday, as I walked into the lobby of my polling place—a convalescent home awash in the pervasive odor of alcohol swabs and eggplant casserole—I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Today, on Jubilant Wednesday, I am a flurry of giggles, while the other camp lets loose with big, fat crocodile tears. Obama will see a second term and as most pundits agree, the bulk of his support came from the rainbow coalition and their friends.

When President Obama endorsed gay marriage last spring he made international headlines and the cover of Newsweek. I was elated yet admittedly bumfuzzled. Was this a courageous move toward true equality or political suicide? The wake of Obama’s bold statement rolled out like a social tsunami— a sea of political flotsam, trampled rights, dirty laundry, religious entitlement and dogma, followed by a flood of intolerance.

As soon as the news hit, those in favor of marriage equality timidly pumped their fists and whispered “Yay.” Those opposed, stomped their feet and shouted at the top of their collective lungs, “Adam and Eve! Not Adam and Steve!” It was another divisive moment in an already fractured country. Romney and his people jumped on this like “Gingrich on a younger, healthier wife” (thanks for the simile, Stephen Colbert).

Not long after this fateful announcement — a day after North Carolina voters approved an amendment to the state constitution limiting marriage to one man and one woman — political activity from both sides mounted with equal fervor as gay rights activists rallied and traditional family groups bolstered their attack on Obama and basic human rights.

But then the remarkable happened. Out of the woodwork, from closets and corporations, LGBT voters mobilized and took their frustration to the polls. Votes poured in from Hollywood studios, New York City’s famed fashion district, farmers in the Midwest (yes, there are gay farmers—maybe not a lot, but don’t kid yourself), New Orleans’ Bourbon Street, the Northwest Coast and the Eastern Seaboard, the boardrooms of global companies, like Apple, Blue Cross, and Wal-Mart. A few votes even trickled in from backwoods’ hollers in Kentucky. 

Turns out gay folks and supporters of marriage equality are in greater numbers than anyone could have imagined. We stand next to you in line at the grocery store. We nurse you back to health. We entertain you and decorate your home with panache and style. We service your vehicles and drive tractors. We are cowboys, bricklayers, lawyers, artists, and accountants. We are everywhere.

Today I laugh the laugh of a changing America, where decades of prejudice and persecution is being replaced by a majority—albeit still slight—that honors and protects equal rights for all.

God bless the USA. Indeed.