the kkk took my baby away

tolerance continues to take a hit. greg said it's easy to be fooled, when you live in austin and particularly in the city, that you are in a place that appreciates differences in people and embraces diversity. this is a very little bubble I must be wandering around in. last nite I stood in line for an hour to vote. I'm not a big voter. or I haven't been. however, in the past 4+ years...i have been getting out a lot more. because I'm concerned a lot more. so I stood with 100 other people at the little elementary school waiting our turn to vote. there was a good cross culture of austin there. mom and babies, husband/wives, hippy girl, tattooed bike riding boy, uptight jabbery yuppie lady, construction worker, older man, older hippy lady, young mom and son, more tattooed folks, and a lady with her 2 dogs. and then the very nice polling people that got us through as quickly as they could. multi-cultured. diverse. tolerant. respectful of each other. we were all there because we felt it was important enough to take this time out of our day and vote. I was happy to be with all of them there in the school hallway. and so in my little bubble, I was really surprised to read prop. 2 was voted into the texas constitution this morning. I'm naïve. I forgot - we live in austin...ya...but in texas first, then in austin. I suppose I cannot get it through my brain why people are so hung up on gay marriage and rights and making sure they are denied. it feels more about mean spiritedness. not wanting to be around people that are different. live differently. they may have even better values and contribute to austin and our community in lots of positive ways. yet, because they are gay, that trumps everything. don't get me started on gay people having such a hard, if not impossible time, of adopting kids either. I get downright angry and sad and perturbed about that. if someone with love and commitment to raising kids wants to adopt and care for abandoned kids, raise them as their own to be happy and contributing adults. wtf. it just kinda feels like a dark day today. the way things are lately. (insert commercial break here. that's why me and my non-straight friend chrissy are heading out to drink margaritas. then I hope to see you all at red light go. the ritz. 10pm. come early and lets play air hockey) I'm not very political, cuz I'm lame I guess. I don't understand politics and get very frustrated very fast with all the bureaucracy and bullshit. its just recently I started paying attention more. seemed pretty important now. like little by little, things keep getting taken away or changed for the worse. I'm baffled by the bible thumping hate-filled fearful people. it doesn't make sense to me. so ya. the kkk came to town to spout off their hateful message. many of my gay friends were like: bring it. they said: how funny is it that those who want to vote in prop. 2, are now in a way aligning themselves with the kkk. ouch. but I dunno. now it's not so funny. just sad.