Is your view evolving??

Friday New York State became the 6th state, along with the District of Columbia, to allow gay marriage. Oh what I would have given to have been in New York celebrating their pride festival this last weekend.

I was sitting home watching the live feed from the New York Senate floor.  When the votes were tallied and victory declared, I jumped up and down and cried for 20 minutes. I have to admit that I felt the same sense of elation that I had felt when we killed HB74 here in Wyoming.

This is such a huge huge victory for the gay rights movement and I hope this helps us build momentum in other states, and I also hope this helps turn attitudes more favorably towards marriage equality. One of the things that makes me optimistic for the future is people who admit they have formed new opinions, opened their minds, or had a change of heart.

This is a quote from Senator Mark Grisanti, a Republican from Buffalo who campaigned on the platform of opposing gay marriage but ended up voting in favor of the bill; "I apologize for those who feel offended. I cannot deny a person, a human being, a taxpayer, a worker, the people of my district and across this state, the State of New York, and those people who make this the great state that it is the same rights that I have with my wife."  Wow, now that's powerful!! And that's how we are going to win the war on equality!

So why is our Presidents' view on marriage equality "evolving?" As a gay rights advocate, I have a bit of a problem with the fact that Dick Cheney and Laura Bush have already evolved their opinions and they happen to be more progressive than our President's! President Obama it's time you speak out in favor of full marriage equality!! Your silence was awkwardly noticeable.

I agree with Maureen Dowd in that, for now, the leader of the civil rights movement of our time appears to be Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York. He has consistently asked New York Lawmakers to bring him a marriage equality bill that he could sign into law, and Friday they delivered!

So what about you? Most of my close friends have the same view I do, but I want to know how many of you have changed you mind about gay marriage or are at least you feel like you are evolving or maybe now are a little more open minded than you once were??

6 down 44 to go! We've got work to do!

Jeran