All you need is love

When I was 17 and came to California for the first time on a family vacation, I was overwhelmed—Los Angeles was impossibly big, the coast was more beautiful than anything I’d seen, San Francisco was cooler than I would ever be, and the redwoods made me realize for the first time how immeasurably small I was. I loved it, I hated it, I wanted to never leave, and I yearned for home.

Years later, I moved to California as so many had before me, knowing no one, and yet having the sense that, in California, things would be different. The Midwest had felt hemmed in and limited to me. California, though . . . California was wide open. Anything and everything was possible there.

So when, on November 4, it became clear that this state that was more than a state but a dream for me had voted to restrict the rights of its citizens, I was stunned. Florida? Sure. Arizona? Of course. But California? This single vote has called into question so much of what I’ve always believed about this place.

We don’t have to lay down, though. We can fight back, with a multitude of voices a thousand times louder than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. If you’re not convinced that Proposition 8 matters, watch this video. And then sign the petition (here). Join the Courage Campaign, because, in the end, courage always wins out over ignorance and fear.

We are better than this, California.