On November 3, 2009, the LGBT community suffered great losses. In New Jersey, where the incumbent Democratic Governor Jon Corzine vowed to sign gay marriage into law, the people have elected Republican Chris Christie who has vowed to do the opposite. In Virginia, hopes of passing gay rights legislation have been dwindled greatly as Republicans won all seats on the ballot. Perhaps worst of all and the most blatantly anti-gay result of the 2009 voting year, Maine has lost the way to gay marriage. In a state where it seemed we finally had our chance in the bag, Maine's defeat is perhaps the biggest blow since Proposition 8.

What do we do now? Surely we can crawl back to our homes and hide under the covers. We can drop the picket signs to the pavement and hang our heads in defeat. Truly, these options would be the easiest, but they will never be the actions of the true champions of Human Rights. The atrocity at Stonewall inflamed our community to stand up together and march. When Anita Bryant threw us into the category of social deviants, our community made our stand in California against Proposition 6, and won. We are a community of strength and love and inside us is a storm to be reckoned with. So smile. Let the bigots know that they will not so easily crush the hopes and dreams of the gay sons and daughters of America. They will not defeat this movement no matter what gains they make. Show them that we will meet their attacks with a tempest that will reduce them to the pathetic playground bullies that they are.

We will march again and continue this struggle together, for we are great and loving creatures; for we are human.

Every day and night, darkness befalls us. It takes the form of hate and discrimination. Of loved ones lost and relationships destroyed. The mettle of our fiber is tested every waking moment of our mortal lives. By this speculation, it would seem to be a miracle to sustain sanity. With death, ignorance, irrationality, greed, and hatred, how do we keep ourselves from creeping toward the abysmal fall just past that inviting and curious ledge of demise? In a world where such forces are hard at work, there is one beacon to follow.

Love is the most powerful weapon in the arsenal of the human heart and soul that can defeat any foe in the face of adversity. It is a bastion of hope for those who lose themselves. It is a thing of such great eminence, that any who would overlook such a factor in any person's life, cannot possibly begin to understand the gravity of such a force.

With love, comes hope and understanding. With the power to understand comes the power to forgive and accept that of which we were once led to believe to be unacceptable. Acceptance is the key to equality, and such is the yearning for any human. Ignorance is the stuff of fools where as an open mind is the foundation of heroes.

Open your mind, and in doing so open your heart, because though it may be true that intelligence is what elevates our societies, it is only the heart that influences such a power to be wielded in the right and just manner. Be the light and unleash the tempest of love upon your enemies and those without a heading. When this roaring storm settles into a tranquil shower of enlightenment, peace will hold the reins.

In the end of days, I hope that this goal will have been accomplished. I dream that when the sun finally sets on our existence, we will be able to say that we lived our final moments in peace, happiness, and love for all.

I am absolutely disgusted that "issues" such as same-sex marriage and abortion are even considered issues. This country was once glorified for its diversity. We were a country with "streets paved with gold" and so diverse as to be considered a "melting pot" of various cultures. It is not meant for the conservative Christian to be the proprietor of that pot.

When the citizens of a country like the United States of America (the supposed beacon of liberty and freedom), the nation that rose up as farmers and lawyers to progress toward a greater purpose than their own differences, begins to look down to a man or woman of that same country because of their views on love and choice.. Well, I ask you then, what are we to stand for now, if not the same equality and freedom that we once prided ourselves on with great vehemency?

If you suggest that any person in this great country, be it man or woman, straight or gay, Christian or Muslim, should have any less equality and any less right to make a personal choice on their own accord, then you are but one more link to the chains and weights that bring down that once invincible arm of our Lady Liberty. And if the weights and links of the absurd notion that anything less than equality for all is acceptable should succeed, then the torch shall tumble into the harbor, and its ripples will create waves that will destroy us. The beacon will be extinguished, and with it, everything that we hold dear.

The United States of America used to represent freedom and equality. We were founded on the ideals that we are all given certain unalienable rights. These rights included life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For generations, those who were excluded from this creed fought valiantly and selflessly so that they and their children could experience the bliss that comes hand in hand with that notion. They wished to be held in the same reverence as any other under the eyes of their government and their peers. Through tears and pain, these brave people achieved their goal. Through great adversity and prejudice, they succeeded. Our history books tell us this. They create only a small image of what the African American and the woman of America had faced.
    
     History. The thought of inequality and discrimination should be just that, a shameful regret of our nation's past. On November 4, 2008, the American people elected a new President. He is a great man with great knowledge and dark skin. It would seem to the untrained eye that our country progresses as valiantly as those oppressed victims of our shameful past had done themselves. Though, for those who can see past the smoke screen that is this historical milestone, they will see that in truth, we have only digressed.

     With common sense, it would be clear to anyone that making the same mistake more than once is simply foolish. With great writers and great contributors to our country such as Thomas Paine, common sense should be more than plentiful in this nation. We would see that disgusting acts have been committed. They would see the oppression that marches at our doorsteps once more. Anyone with common sense would fully understand that in our documents, written by an intellectual elite who wished only for a better world, freedom and equality are supposed to be our most venerated ideals.

     On the same night that it seemed we as a whole had made progress, the states of Florida, Arizona, and California added an amendment to their constitutions that will only breed hate and discrimination. These amendments, though differing in words and punctuation, all entailed the same oppressive definition: No gay man or lesbian may marry another of the same sex, regardless of the enormous power of love that may bring them together, a man and a man or a woman and a woman are unacceptable.

     In our past, a black man courting a white woman was found unacceptable. It was a crime payed for only in blood. A woman could not reach out for the ballot, for her small mind could not handle such a responsibility. I am proud to say that this recent election proved both of those once unacceptable prospects to be nothing but false and inane. Barack Obama was brought into this world by a white woman who fell in love with a black man. Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin, both women, came so close to holding high positions in our government. History shows us that our views that give rise to discrimination were absurd and completely wrong!

     Preventing love is surely one of our most outrageous and absolutely pathetic decisions we have and can ever make in our lifetime. Love is a driving force that no person can understand so as to prevent any other from experiencing it freely with no recourse or hatred projected towards them. A man can love a man and a woman can love a woman. This much has been clearly made evident before our eyes. And though you may argue that marriage is not the only means of presenting your love to that one special person who you would enjoy nothing more than to spend the rest of your life with, you can never present the idea that the GLBT community will ever be looked at equally in society so long as laws stand in the way to prevent them from experiencing the same bliss that the African Americans and women of America fought so valiantly for.

     A taint has been made on our reputation as a country once more as the citizens within it's walls procure the hate and discrimination that only the most egotistical demon spawn could ever produce. History has repeated itself, and so it will again in retaliation. Just as Martin Luther King Jr. marched for equality and peace, so too will the GLBT community rise up for their civil rights in protest and in great numbers for their equal place at the table. Their voices will be heard, and I hope to the high heavens that our leaders and most importantly our people will see the errors of their ways. I hope we learn that nobody is greater than anyone else.

The only thing bigger than any human being, is the love of two.