Vote Love

In four weeks we will go to the ballot box to decide who will get to live in the White House for the next four years. But, just like every election, this is about more than just the big game of musical chairs in the halls of power. Four states across this vast nation of ours are voting on marriage equality referendums. Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington will all have gay marriage on their ballots. Now, back in 2008 when California did the same thing, I was filled with the righteous political passion of a true believer. Educate, inform, get out the vote. I feel those same things now, four years later. But I also feel weary and more than a little angry that we’re still doing this. Not that same-sex marriage is still being debated necessarily. Debate is fine, we have this thing called free speech. But it’s that we still, as a country, think our love – my love – is something to be voted on. In fact, the more I think about it the more furious I become. Rights aren’t a popularity contest. Rights aren’t a campaign. Rights are rights. I shouldn’t have to convince anyone I deserve them, I should just have them. It’s that whole inalienable thing. Alas, we aren’t there yet, as a nation. We’re still tiptoeing on the edges of equality, letting the majority decide for the minority. So, again, we education, inform, and get out the vote. This won’t be the last time. But let it be the beginning to history’s inevitable conclusion. We have the right to marry, and we will have the right one day from coast to coast. Let it be soon. And let no man or woman’s vote be allowed to tear our unions asunder.

On November 6:
In Maine, Vote YES on 1
In Maryland, Vote FOR Question 6
In Minnesota, Vote NO on the Constitutional Amendment
In Washington, Vote APPROVE Referendum 74

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p.s. If you like the music that serenades you today, please send some much-deserved iTunes love to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (featuring Mary Lambert).