But I hope that her country will one day find it in its heart to welcome me as her equal partner, and not as her ‘friend’…

And you touch on a key point, Shane, with the beautiful image of the flicker of equality spreading across the country. One of the attorneys I heard speak last week in San Francisco, Deb Kinney, suggested that if the proposition is overturned, she expected that up to 25% of the states of the union would be in the process of considering/enacting same-sex marriage laws within a year.

It is that significant.

It is that expensive for the forces of hate and discrimination to try to fight this battle, and given the size of this state, and the conservative, Republican majority of the state Supreme Court that made the ruling (critical! can’t be overlooked! majority Republican!), it just doesn’t figure for them to keep fighting this fight if they lose here.

I know I’m a broken record (oops! outdated metaphor! um, constantly rebooting YouTube feed?), but I still want to say: THIS IS WHY IT IS A NATIONAL AND NOT A STATE BATTLE.

In spite of Californian’s myopia, in spite of our notorious egocentrism (and I sure am not going to argue against that; I got stories to tell), it’s true that the consequences of this will DEFINITELY affect your state, whatever it is. This is why I’m trying to raise funds nationally through this blog, and why I want any reader who feels even modestly inclined to send a link, any link, to a friend.

Carolyn, thank you for the moral support, and for encouraging your sister to get the word out. There’s so much action at the top of the ballot, as it were, that it’s a lot easier for Propositions (which are so often so onerous) to get overlooked. Another challenge about this one is that a “no” vote is actually a “positive” or more friendly, loving move. No often feels bad, but in this case, it’s good. People often overlook the detail that the CA supreme court merely read the state constitution and its equal protection clause, finally, as protecting same sex partners’ rights to marry. It didn’t install anything new there. So the “no” is to leave things be. Or, more accurately, to keep from having a currently existing, currently recognized individual right from being REMOVED.

It’s on this basis, the true legal basis on which the proposition stands, that we hope many otherwise fairly noncommittal people will vote no.

Oh, and you know, anyone from anywhere in the US can support the battle by monetarily supporting the No on 8 campaign. Hey! I got a page for you right here!

I, as I am sure the rest of us who read this blog, share your twin wishes on this and every day until November. It is my hope that in the post election world we will have something to look forwad to for the next four years, and the tender flame of equality that has been lit in states like California will not be extinguished but instead, spread like wildfire across this nation under it’s new leadership. In my short 31 years on this planet I can not recall another election that had me so captivated, so nervous, and so terrified of its outcome. I shutter at the thought of where we will be in four years under the McCain-Palin leadership plan.

I don’t live in California and can’t help with voting, but my sister lives there and I know she’s on your side.

Just know that out here in the very, very red state of Missouri you have support from a mom and her 13 y/o daughter (she has been advocating for gay marriage for over a year, I am so proud of her).