Bush wins the popular vote by 3 million and change.
California approves $3 bil of stem cell money.
Six red 11 states ban gay marriage, including Ohio.
Cleveland Heights’ domestic partner registry, authorized by voters last November, will end. Five publicly supported colleges, including Cleveland State and Ohio State, will no longer offer benefits to unmarried couples gay or straight.
For gays and lesbians, the impact is immediate, personal and painful.
“I know of at least five families who are moving out of this state,” said Tim Downing, a Cleveland gay-rights lawyer and president of Ohioans for Growth and Equality. “People who have custody agreements, people who have adoption orders issued by other states . . . know all of those things are now at risk here.” (Cleveland Plain Dealer ; Nov. 3 2004)
I was thinking about how because of the fact that it’s so difficult for Americans to travel abroad now, and how having an American passport is a stigma (and that those with passports were voting for Kerry).
So here’s what I propose:
Obviously Americans aren’t really ready to live with the rest of the world yet. That’s a long way off. But maybe we can start to live with each other some. So let’s take a few thousand of the most conservative Ohioans and have them live in the Castro (SF) for a year. And let’s do the same thing in reverse, with the most liberal Castroites living in Ohio somewhere in the reddest part of the state.
A reconciliation tactic or a death knoll? A reality television’s dream? Or a way to further divide the country?
