Hope

I vividly remember waking up that morning in November of 2007.  President Obama had been elected and we had gone to bed happy, confident that Prop 8 wouldn't pass.   After all, how could it?   Gay Californians weren't asking for money or power...just the simple right to marry the person they chose.  It wasn't like they were asking for the moon, but they might as well have been....and still the hateful legislation passed.

I woke up, read the news and felt like I had been assaulted when I saw this very picture.   It was the prop 8 side cheering victory...a rampaging victory of hate.   I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach.  

But we didn't stop. 

Protestors protested.  Marchers marched.  Activists sued...and eventually we made headway ..step by step.   We found allies we didn't expect, and some were a huge surprise.  The fight for equality became a series of steps up the Capitol.... through court case after court case....and here we are now....waiting.   
The memory of the fight and failure are still with us.  We're left with the bitter, bitter memory of the passage of Prop 8.....and until the Court of Appeals posts their decision, we have to hold onto something else....hope.
Harvey Milk said it best, "And after all, that's what this is all about. It's not about personal gain, not about ego, not about power —  You gotta give them hope."