I’ve been walking on air since last night. So inspired, so moved. There is a surreal quality to all of this. Experiencing a shift in global consciousness, however small, has always knocked me off my feet. But this–I have not had the fortune of experiencing anything similar to it in my lifetime prior to last evening. I was talking with some friends today and we both agreed that even if Obama’s approval rating plummets because of deeds done or undone in the Oval Office (though intuitively, I feel  this is unlikely), the shift that occurred this week will never be undone. We saw the power of what hope, and belief in change can do. This was manifestation at it’s highest, and most human level. I am hopeful about this country once again, because I can see that this heralds the dawning of a day when bigots and racists will be as far from our history as dinosaurs and gladiators. But, in the same breath, I am sad today.Tonight the gay community is simultaneously mourning and rejoicing. Proposition 8 passed in California and two other states (Arizona and Florida) voted to ban gay marriage. It seems that hope has given generously with one hand and taken away most viciously with another. My basic civil and human rights had been put up on the voting block and hordes of people turned up and cast their vote against my freedom and the freedom of all of my brothers and sisters in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans community. What this means to me personally is that my partner and I have to worry that we will be denied access to each other if one of us ends up in the hospital, that if one of us dies the other will be left without any rights, and that we are not entitled to any of the same legal rights that every heterosexual human being on this earth is entitled to. Other people voted on this and decided that the gay community is less than human, unworthy of the rights that everyone else has, unworthy of love, and unworthy of loving. This not only breaks my heart with grief, but it provokes rage against a count