Candace Chellew-Hodge: Why is My Life Still Up for a Vote? | Election 2008 | ReligionDispatches

Op-Ed: Why is My Life Still Up for a Vote? | Election 2008 | ReligionDispatches: "While many Americans are celebrating a groundbreaking first, the election of an African American president, I find my mood tempered by another history-making moment at the ballot box—the denial of marriage equality to gay and lesbian citizens in Arizona, Florida, and California.

It must be unprecedented for so many states to put the civil rights of other citizens on the ballot to be voted up or down like special sales taxes or zoning decisions. It must be nice to be in such a spot of special privilege in this country that you believe it's fitting for you to have the power to say what another human being can do with their lives—how they can live it and who they can live it with."