I think congradulations are in order

To all of the gay and lesbian couples in California who are now allowed to legally get married: Congradulations! It's about time, is all I can say. I'm proud of my home state. I was there in 2000 when the ballot initiative banning gay marriage passed. I was pretty surprised at the time; I mean, hey, it's California! Aren't we supposed to be a liberal state? I was also quite disheartened. I think this was also the year (or close to it) that bilingual education got the big axe due to a ballot initiative that passed. Because we all know what both initiatives were really about: keeping people in their place. Or the place that those who wished to maintain the status quo wanted them to stay in. To that I say: to hell with that! We will never advance as a society until and unless every single one of us is allowed every legal equality. So you see, as the mother of a Latino son, I'm in no great rush to get back to the United States, or even my beloved California, because the racism and hatred is just too much for me to take. It's bad enough to have to listen to someone like Lou Dobbs on the telly (which yes, just for the record, I turn off when my son is in the room -- I have no desire for him to grow up thinking that being a person of color is wrong, and he's too young to wade through bullshit to get to the heart of the issues).

Well anyway, I know that some uber-conservative groups are trying to get yet another ballot initiative passed in November banning gay marriage in the state constitution (though, honestly, I thought it was a lot more difficult to amend the state constitution than just passing a ballot initiative). I won't be there to vote against it this time. So I'm counting on you Californians out there to do the right thing. I do, however, get to vote for president, and let's just say it ain't gonna be McCain.

As long as the Catholic church is in power here in Costa Rica, I think we can safely say that there will be no gay marriages any time soon (hell, we don't even have reproductive freedom here, and I'm including the right to in-vitro; we are the only country in the world to have banned the procedure). I think that society is pretty open to gays and lesbians, however, so perhaps someday we might see, at the very least, "civil unions" legalized. One can only hope.