I’d love to bring you some good news that isn’t related to Barack Obama, but what’s the point? Yesterday, he officially became our President – again, defeating Romney via popular and electoral votes after all the ballots were counted in every single state, which sounds painstaking. And months of fear and loathing (for the other guy) came down to yet another historic Election Day. There’s still tons unfolding to celebrate, so let’s get started!
This Is The New Shiny World We Live In, Hopefully
I woke up on Wednesday and, after fully registering that the night before had, indeed, been real, sat back and wondered what my friend Danny had meant when he drunkenly repeated “liberal era” over and over and over again. And then it hit me – November 6, 2012 wasn’t entirely a fluke or a crazy moment in time when a bunch of stoners hit one button with great knowledgeable force and then indecisively hit the rest in my favor. It was proof that a shift is occurring. That we run shit. That we matter. And the Des Moines Register totally got me:
This is a different America than any of us could have imagined when growing up. It’s one in which women’s votes can, and did, override the votes of men. A black president was re-elected with the support of only 39 percent of white people. Gay men and lesbians can legally marry in nine states, and marijuana can be smoked, just for fun, in two. In this new America, it’s no longer taboo to be openly gay in the U.S. Senate. There will now be seven gay and lesbian members of Congress. For the first time, an Asian-American woman will join the Senate, which inches closer to gender parity with a record 20 female members. In fact, among Democrats in the U.S. House, white men are now in the minority.
Tighten your seat belts, folks, because change is coming fast.
More Moments of Victory
Let me say it again and again and again: we won! And we have pics/video footage to prove it. So there.
Obama Is So Excited To Be Invited to Your Wedding
Still-President Obama is “absolutely delighted” that gay marriage is on the rise state-by-state. Do you think this means he’ll do it from up top soon? I’m getting so impatient.
Yoko Ono is On Our Side
Hey, look! Yoko Ono being amazing. How completely typical of her. S
You’ve said in the past that you’re upset that gays can’t get married. Can you tell me more about that?
I’m really saddened that fair treatment is not given to gays. Why can’t they get married, if they wanted to?Would your late husband, John Lennon, have supported marriage equality?
Definitely. John hated any injustice.You’ve always had great gay artists around you, like Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. What about lesbian or transgender artists?
I wasn’t counting my friends on their sexual preference. So I don’t know.
Colorado Has A Gay Speaker
The democrats in Colorado have elected a gay man as house speaker. Let’s all get totally high and celebrate! JK. I don’t live in Colorado and never do drugs.
Everyone Is Getting Ready to Get Married
Now that gay marriage is like, the most legal thing ever, everyone is doing it, right?
+ In Baltimore, free wedding planning is being offered to gay couples because they’re so darn cute!
+ In Maryland, the plans are just rolling on out! It’s like the post offices there are just overflowing with wedding invites.
Sundance Channel Building a Trans* Drama
Ira Glass (the dude with the great glasses from This American Life) will produce a drama for the Sundance Channel called T, focused around a character’s journey from lesbian activist to trans man.
ADORABLE TEEN ROMANCE ALERT
Katie Hill and Arin Andrews had been through a lot before they met. Both of them, for example, grew up in Oklahoma and struggled with bullying there. Both of them had come out to their families and communities as trans* and began presenting as their true genders.
(And it’s so cute that you can read about it, look at pictures of it happening, and watch video footage of it to remind yourself it’s a real story and not something devastatingly cute that I created for you.)
The Best Romance of The Week
Gay couples in states where marriage is now in the cards for you legally and socially, I’mma let you finish, but Kate the Dog and Pippin the Deer are the fucking most amazing couple of our generation. (Except Carly and Robin. They’re obviously the most amazing couple of all time.)
Wait wait, so the Daily Mail, a notoriously conservative newspaper with a history of saying some horribly anti-LGBTQ things… actually published a story about trans* people which didn’t make me want to throw things and punch babies? It’s not perfect but still… The times they are a-changing.
I know!! – I was so scared to click the link but it was the only article I’ve ever read by the Mail that hasn’t wanted to make me throw up. I’m amazed that this day has come in my lifetime really. And yes, the trans couple are soooo adorable its ridiculous, they just make me melt.
Also pleasantly surprised by the Mail! Katie made me cry, and I never cry.
i know! i found the article and sent it to everyone for carmen to use here, and i seriously read it like ten times and was like, holy shit! they didn’t fuck up! i mean the headline is really stupid (“sex-change sweethearts”) and terrible, but they even like, used the correct pronouns when referring to them as children, which almost never happens in the mainstream press
Yeah! The correct pronoun usage made me ridiculously happy.
People crying happy cries in videos makes me cry in front of my laptop and then it’s just like a big crying loop forever.
Apparently ABC news reported that Obama told MTV at the end of October that he would not be pushing marriage equality at the federal level this term. It was an article in the Examiner (this feels like it’s gone through a lot of sources…). I don’t know how accurate it all is… but I am curious what this means. If it means he won’t even push to overturn DOMA… that’s kinda bullshit.
This is the article http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-to-mtv-i-won-t-be-pushing-gay-marriage-second-term
If that is true, that is epic b@#%$@t. Unfortunately, him not doing anything is still better than going backwards, as we would have surely done with Romney.
The trans* couple is kitten-in-a-bowtie-on-a-rainbow level cute
The swapping of old clothes is particularly adorable.
I’m obsessed with Katie and Arin.
I am super obsessed with Katie and Arin. Like, I have been on the verge of tears for most of the day except whenever I wasn’t actually crying, just because this is such a beautiful and moving thing.
I’m glad Kate the Dog and Pippin the Deer are friends, cause at first I thought Kate was chewing on Pippin’s neck and I couldn’t understand why the picture had been included
“I wasn’t counting my friends on their sexual preference. So I don’t know.”
Yoko, I never doubted you fucking rock.
KATIE AND ARIN ARE THE CUTEST. OH MY GOD. THAT IS ALL I CAN EXPRESS.
Seriously, Katie and Arin. They’re the very cutest. Can hardly form sentences. ::replaying video::