What a Night to be Gay: Re-electing Obama, winning four marriage equality votes, and sending record numbers of gays to Capitol Hill is the watershed moment for LGBT rights

Opinion: Elections tend to turn me into a bit of a nervous Nellie. Not a full-on drama queen like Andrew Sullivan, who set the sky-is-falling gold standard for that after the first presidential debate, but someone who approaches any election night with a fluttering stomach and sense of foreboding. Despite polls and pundits and the reassuring mathematical models of Nate Silver, I always feel like something's going to go wrong. That's why Tuesday night's election left me feeling like I needed a cigarette afterward. President Barack Obama re-elected. A record number of LGBT candidates heading to Capitol Hill. Four marriage-equality victories in one night, reversing a decade-long string of defeats in a way that left Maggie Gallagher slack-jawed and Brian Brown likely crying into his pillow. That is a night where almost everything's gone right. When Obama voiced his support for marriage equality earlier this year, I thought it was a watershed moment. I was wrong. It was keystone moment, an important and long-missing piece of the puzzle finally snapping into place. Tuesday night was the actual watershed moment, when Maryland, Maine and Washington voters stood up and said ''yes'' to equality; when Minnesota voters refused to write anti-gay discrimination into their constitution; when Iowans declined to turn out a judge who had decided in favor of marriage equality; when Americans re-elected a president who had taken a pro-gay stand on an issue that just a few short years ago would have meant political suicide. ... (more)

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