Please Vote for Love

If you live in the state of Maryland, in many cases, your vote doesn't count. It just doesn't. No matter how you or any of your friends vote, on Tuesday night we're going to see that Barack Obama is going to carry this state. No matter how many people stay home tomorrow, for whatever reason they choose, when they wake up on Wednesday morning, Ben Cardin is still going to be one of their senators. We already know who is going to win most of the elections and which Questions are going to pass. Most of them anyway. Except the most important one.

Question 6. We can debate all day and night about the merits of placing a minority group's individual rights up to a popular vote, but the fact remains that we are going to be voting on that very thing tomorrow. And I, for one, am glad to be given a chance to stand up for what is right.

Maryland is in a unique position here, folks (along with three other states). This question has come up for popular vote in many states before this one, and it will come up in many states after this one (barring action from our federal government to settle this thing once and for all). And it has never passed. Yes, same sex marriage is legal in many states, but each time it's come up for a popular vote it has been denied. Hate has won.

Now it is time for us to lead. We, the people of Maryland, have an awesome responsibility tomorrow. We can be the state that finally says, "Yes." We can be the state that does what is right. We can be the leaders in this fight. We can show the rest of the country what it means to say yes to love. We can show the rest of the country what it means to say yes to family. We can show the rest of the country that Maryland is a state that believes in freedom. We can show the rest of the country that the people of Maryland will not accept hate. Will not accept discrimination. We can do these things and we must.

I have two friends, Ed and Tony. They have been together for as long as I've known them (more than ten years). They have a beautiful little girl named Hayden. They are a loving and committed and beautiful family. On their Facebook page, Ed and Tony proclaim to the world that they are "In a domestic partnership". In a domestic partnership. Please excuse my foul language, but that is fucking unacceptable. They've been together longer than my wife and I have even known each other. They are committed to one another. They have a family. They intend to be with each other for the rest of their lives. And on Facebook they have to tell the world that they are in a domestic partnership. Like fucking roommates.

Enough is enough.

Don't stay home tomorrow. Don't stay home. Get out there and vote. Show this country what it looks like to be on the side of what's right. Show the world that Maryland knows how to treat its citizens. Be the leaders. Ed and Tony and Hayden need you. Please show them that you care. Let them tell the world that they are not domestic partners. They are married. Above all, let them live their lives with dignity. As they will you.

They need your vote. Every single vote matters. Every one. Get to the polls and do what's right. For the first time in the history of this country, let the world see a state whose population says yes to love.

Vote Yes on Question 6.

If this thing doesn't pass I am just going to snap.