An Open Letter for those on the Right:

First, congratulations.

Second, to help explain what you are perceiving as the extreme reactions of those on the left to our defeat, I would like to share how I am feeling right now with you.

I keep hearing from the Right, over and over, that this election was a moral victory for christian americans. That the clear difference between Senator Kerry and President Bush was in their morality, and that it was his conservative christian stance on things like gay marriage that kept President Bush in office.

To me, that tells me that President Bush was reelected primarily to keep me and my boyfriend from marrying each other. From being able to inherit without taxation, from being able to visit each other in the hospital without drawing up extensive and expensive legal documentation. From being viewed as equal in rights and basic human dignity with heterosexual couples in the eyes of the law. That is what was, apparently, most important to the majority of americans. To condemn my relationship with someone I love, and to keep it sharing equal rights and legal consideration with their own relationships.

I'm not feeling too happy with the majority of americans right now. Or with the majority of christians, for that matter.

If others feel as I do, whether on this issue or others, it's unsurprising that you continue to see such passionate opposition to this outcome from them.

For me this means at least four more years of having to struggle for basic human rights. Probably much more than that, since this will also give President Bush the opportunity to appoint rather conservative christian supreme court judges whose terms will greatly outlast his own.

I would ask, for now, that you have patience with us and our feelings on this matter. And also that you remember, while understandably celebrating your own victories, that we on the left are citizens too and should not be so thoroughly dismissed as irrelevant by the present majority.

Edit: the portion of this text where I said I was not happy with the majority of Christians is coming across in the wrong way. Let me try to explain what I meant by it. I keep hearing over and over again from the Right that this is a moral victory for christianity in america, and evidence seems to indicate that a majority of christians voted for Bush rather than Kerry in this election based primarily on their religious beliefs. This is compounded by them also voting to ban gay marriage in eleven states. I cannot in good conscience say that I am happy with the stances this majority has taken, or that they seem so willing to conflate their religious views with political stances in a nation which promises freedom of religion. This has nothing to do with their religion itself, and I would react the same way if the majority of Muslims or Pagans started voting to impose their religious beliefs on others. Please note, before being offended by this, that I also said I am not happy with the majority of americans and yet I am one myself; neither statement is meant as a disparagement of the group, only disappointment with the view now expressed by the majority in each, even if they are the majority by a narrow margin as seems to be the case.