My eyes teared up as I watched our president-elect, Barack Hussein Obama, make his acceptance speech.  Like many I never imagined we would see a black president and here it was...Election Day…and WE DID IT! We elected Barack Obama!

I was euphoric but still worried about the damaging California state propositions like 4, 6, and 8.  As I waited for the results I no longer worried about 4 & 6, but the tallies on 8 were depressing.  The next morning, 8 passed.

The passing of proposition 8 did not make me sad; it made me angry.  Angry that ignorance and hate won.  Angry that we were voting on whether two people have the right to marry – who am I to decide that for someone else!

Now it is post-election, and there has been instant backlash around prop 8.  Both sides of the issue are at a standstill.  It is odd that some people against gay marriage consider it an extreme political view; how can it be extreme for people to be equal, to enjoy the same rights as their neighbors and the same ability to make their own decisions about the next phase of life with their partner.  It is immoral to not give their union the same significance as the title of marriage.

I myself am a straight woman.  I was raised Catholic with a traditional Mexican background, but in San Francisco, where we liberals are abundant.  Unlike the typical female stereotype, I never had a picturesque view of what my wedding day would be like.  I don't know the cut of my dress or how big I want it to be.  I did not grow up day dreaming about my marriage at all.  If anything, marriage scares me- I see its beauty but balk at the commitment and expectations. Growing up, every time I did something "domestic" like cook dinner or clean the house it was referred to as preparing myself to get married.  In my rebelliousness, I would always respond "No, it's to prepare myself to be an independent woman!"

I never thought that marriage was a required phase in my life and still don't.  If that is where life leads me, ok.  But I have the choice, the RIGHT- I have the freedom as a straight woman to opt in or out of marriage.  And it  is unfair and unjust to not give everyone that choice no matter what their sexual orientation is.  In 1967, interracial marriage was legalized – 41 years ago!  It was every bit as deplorable to prohibit the union of two people from different racial backgrounds as it is to prohibit the marriage of two people of the same sex.

Love is universal – no love is second to anyone else's. Families are being created through these unions, and they are beautiful.  They mean as much as families formed from "same sex marriages."  The struggle by the gay community to receive the right to marry is a powerful sign of their commitment to our society, and opponents of gay marriage will never succeed in making gay marriage a 'political view.'  It is a facet of humanity that can not be overruled.