Election 2012: Hope and Love Win!

It was a very long tense election night.  But ultimately, hope and love won. Misogyny, racism, homophobia lost.  The people of the United States voted, and on sexual justice issues, we are the new moral majority.

Sexual justice seeks to uphold the experience and expression of sexuality as life giving and pleasurable, in a social context marked by mutual respect, equality, and accountability.  Sexual justice fosters physical, emotional, and spiritual health and accepts no double standards and applies to all persons.  It encompasses reproductive justice for women and the full inclusion of women and LGBTQ people. 

There are so many ways that sexual justice triumphed on election night.  The future of the Supreme Court was likely decided for generations to come, and it  will I believe continue to support the precedent of Roe v. Wade and ultimately decide that the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional.   Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin were roundly trounced from office, following their inane and disrespectful comments about rape victims.  Eighteen women were elected to the United States Senate, including several remarkable feminist political leaders and the first out lesbian.  Maine and Maryland became the first states where the majority of voters supported marriage equality; Minnesota rejected a ban on same sex marriage; and Washington is likely to support marriage equality as well.  Fifty five percent of the voters resoundingly defeated an anti-abortion measure in Florida. 

These victories did not come easily, and they represent the work of thousands of people of faith across the country.  We know that people of faith came together to work for marriage equality and abortion rights in every state where they were debated.  We know that the values of compassion, full inclusion, equality for all triumphed.  We know that young people, people of color, Latinos, and many Catholics and evangelicals helped bring about these social and sexual justice victories.  We will learn more as the pollsters and analysts do their work in the coming weeks, but I’m convinced that there will be a new understanding of what it means to be a values voter. 

The hymn that is going through my mind this morning is “May Nothing Evil Cross This Door.”  It resonates with my hopes – I hope all of our hopes. despite which candidates you supported yesterday – for the future of the United States and the world:

“With laughter drown the raucous shout, and though these sheltering walls are thin, may they be strong to keep hate out and hold love in.”

And so may it be. 

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

I love everything about voting.  I love standing in line with my neighbors at the local elementary school; I love the PTA bake sale; I love going into the voting booth and pulling the levers; I love wearing the little "I voted today" sticker.

Tomorrow's election is probably the most important election we've had on sexual justice issues in at least three decades.  The party's platforms couldn't be more different on these issues.  Four states are voting on marriage equality.  Several states have policies on abortion access.  The future of the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to be affected.

I have readers from across the political spectrum and across the values spectrum.  Whatever you believe, please go out and vote.  Make sure your neighbors vote.  Make sure your older parents and your adult children vote.  Be an informed voter.  Our future depends on it.