Mawwaige. Mawwaige is what teaws us apawat, twoday.

Okay, so apparently when I have actual people to talk to about the election (thanks Gwen, Maria, and Chris) I don't rant about it much here, and my blogging is inconsistent at the best of times. I'm sure I'll have plenty of criticism for President Obama on the day after his inauguration, but for now, three cheers for the guy who promised change and made us believe he could deliver.

I did want to cap things off, though, with a little comment on my state of Arizona, our neighbors in California, and our fellow citizens in Florida. Seriously, guys, what the hell? I mean, CA and FL, you both went for Obama, you're supposed to be liberal states. AZ, we're supposed to be libertarian mavericks, to each his or her own. So what gives on the gay marriage ban? Why did we enshrine a limitation on people's civil rights into our states' constitutions?

In 1896, the US Supreme Court decided that non-White Americans should be separate, but equal, from White Americans in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. It was not until 1954, over half a century later, that Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka overturned that decision, telling Americans that separate was inherently un-equal. This after many challenges by groups like the NAACP attempting to show that institutions for "colored" people were not receiving the same attention, funding, etc as the White "equivalents."

Still, it was not until Loving v. Virginia in 1967 that the Court determined that people of color and people devoid of color had a right to marry.

While it was a unanimous decision in 1967, it is worth noting that it came 71 years after Plessy and represented hundreds of years of progress. Barack Obama's victory came 112 years after the US Supreme Court enshrined the idea of "separate but equal."

I have a friend who says she has "hope for, but not faith in, humanity." Perhaps this is what she means. Obama gives us hope that any minority, no matter how politically unpopular, may some day have just as good a shot in this country as everyone else. I hope that, soon, homosexuals will be treated as equals. But the idea of civil unions being pushed right now brings echoes of Plessy to mind. I hope that an openly gay man or woman can be president before 2120. As for my faith that it will actually happen...