I have recently been doing a bit of reading about Harvey Milk. An item on NPR yesterday set me off, and I dove right in!

With all the sadness, and anger surrounding the recent passing of PROP 8 in California, banning Gay marriages, I had forgotten how far we have come!

I was a high school senior when Harvey Milk was gunned down in his office in San Francisco. I barely remembered him. I wasn't out at that time. Still in denial about my own sexual preference. I was one of those people running from himself.

In 1978, violence against Gays and Lesbians was the norm. You could be fired from your job, evicted from your apartment, etc. just for being who you were born to be.

I wonder if Harvey Milk ever thought that a Gay Americans life could be as wonderful as mine is! If he ever thought his dreams and hopes for equality would ever come to fruition?

Cut to 2008. I sit here at work with a framed photo from Wendell's and my Holy Union ceremony in 2006 proudly displayed on my desk. I work for a company that offers Same Sex Partnership benefits to its employees. I live in a loft in the middle of a small town in SC, and I display my rainbow flag from a window sill facing the main street of town. Wendell and I go to numerous parties, and dinner parties with heterosexuals as a regular couple. People address letters and invitation s to us at Wendell Hunt & Barry Turner-Hunt. Our wedding announcement was posted in a local newspaper.

Honestly, sometimes I forget that we are Gay.

People like Prop 8 supporters are losing influence in this country. They are still using those tired old bible verses to keep us down. An argument that so many Americans are so sick of hearing. They are on the way to becoming extinct. Falling out of the public eye like Anita Bryant, and passing away like the late Jerry Falwell.

In this election year. The election wasn't won on GOD GUNS and GAYS this year. We were barely mentioned. This election was won on CHANGE. On HOPE. On being sick of that same tired old message about exclusion, intolerance, and hate.

The way I understand it, the 7 thousand Gay marriages that took place in before the election will still be valid. This issue is SO headed for the Federal Supreme Court! I believe that the issue is so shaky, that it will be overturned!

Getting this Bullshit piece of state legislation passed ain't no real victory for Prop 8 supporters. Putting an unpopular issue to a popular vote doesn't protect civil rights. It violates them. I think they are in for a big surprise!

Today, the state of Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that Gays can marry there. Once, only Civil Unions were granted. Now, its full on MARRIAGE!

I'm so proud of the folks protesting in California! Refusing to just accept this kind of injustice is the kind of action that Harvey Milk was pushing in the Castro, back in the late 70s!

Being religious doesn't give anyone the right to take civil rights away from their peers. They can't hide behind their crazy religious abuse any longer.

Keith Oberman spoke on Prop 8 a couple of nights ago. He urged those crazy thumpers who keep shoving LEVITICUS in our faces to remember another verse from the bible. Namely Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.

Their arguments are wearing thin now.

If we continue to hold our heads high, be proud, be OUT, be ourselves, we'll take Prop 8 (and them) to the mat!