Painfully bittersweet

Last night I cheered Barack Obama's historic victory and toasted him with champagne. This morning I'm overwhelmed by pain.

Voters in Arizona and Florida banned marriage equality. Voters in Arkansas denied lesbians, gays and single heterosexuals the right to foster children and adopt. And most horrific of all, it looks like voters in California are taking the right to marry away from lesbian and gay couples.

To put this into perspective...

* If the Arkansas ban had been the law in Kansas when my life partner died of cancer, I would never have been able to adopt the son I had raised. Because she was his biological parent and I was invisible under the law, he would have lost both parents because of the death of one.

* Nearly 20,000 same-sex couples in California no longer know whether their marriages are legal. And the children of all same-sex couples throughout this nation woke up this morning to once again learn that their families are reviled.

One More Thing: My family & today's election

This morning three generations of my lily white family, ranging in age from 22 to 81, voted for a black man for president. And we did it in Kansas, even though we knew that Barack Obama doesn't have a chance in holy heck of taking our state's electoral votes. We did it because it was the right thing to do. We did it because we think Obama is the right person for the job.

It wasn't until after I cast my vote that I realized how emotional I feel about finally having the opportunity to vote for an African American for president. It makes me want to cry to see this country live up to its promise. I can only pray that the people of California, Florida, Arizona and Arkansas will continue to support that promise by turning their backs on discrimination.