Last night I sat at Denver’s Invesco Field and watched Barack Obama accept the Democratic nomination for President. I found myself thinking about my brother’s wedding day and my first day of second grade.

My oldest brother, Alan, got married in 1970. He married my sister-in-law Claudette in Newport News, Virginia. If they had gone down to get their marriage license three years earlier, they would have been denied. You see, Alan is white. Claudette is black. Because of that fact, my brother and his new wife had to move north, as it was not physically safe to move back to our family home in North Carolina. I would not see him for the next four years.

The next year, 1971, I started second grade. I will always remember that first day of school — because it was the first day I had ever shared a classroom with black students. You see, schools were still legally segregated when I was in first grade. I was one of very few white students who came to school that first day of school in 1971. That day, and every other day I attended public schools in North Carolina, we white students sat on one side of the classroom and our black classmates sat on the other. No one ever crossed that line. As I watched Barack Obama accept the nomination tonight, I thought about how we have this amazing opportunity to turn a momentous corner in our nation’s history with this election, to create a very different set of memories for the next generation. And I started to cry.

Oh, there’s plenty of good political reasons to vote for Barack Obama, most of which boil down to this: if – like me — you think our nation is on the wrong track, then vote for Barack Obama (if you think that the path we’ve been following for the past eight years is the right one then, by all means, vote for John McCain, because you’ll get more of the same from a man who voted with President Bush over 90% of the time). But that’s not why I was crying. I was crying because I know this election is about making history, not just making policy.

As a member of the National Finance Committee for Obama for America, my job is to help raise the money Senator Obama needs to win. We need your support to make this history. On Aug. 1 the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee had $93 million in the bank: so did the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee. From a financial point of view, the election is tied. I’d be deeply grateful for any support you could give. No gift is too small (and only a gift over $30,800 is too big!). Please give at https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/GLBT and make sure you say on the form I referred you so I can thank you for stepping up.

Three years ago this month, I had a nearly fatal heart attack, an event which taught me that time is precious, that — when we are presented with a stark choice and an opportunity to make real change – we can’t afford to waste it. We have such a choice this fall in Barack Obama. Let’s not waste it.

Kevin Says... | 1 Comment »

I am out in Denver for the Democratic Convention.  Last night the convention opened with a dramatic speech by the great champion of justice Sen.  Ted Kennedy, who made it a point that America needed to get past the politics of division that pitted “straight against gay.”  I know I wasn’t the only one whose eyes welled up watching this incredible man who has fought the good fight for us for four decades in the Senate, coming to Denver despite recent brain surgery for his malignant cancer, to try one last time to inspire our nation to be a better place, just as his older brothers did before him.

Then I saw the future.  The evening closed with a moving personal speech by Michelle Obama, in which she talked about her own journey, growing up in a family with a Dad with MS who nevertheless managed to work for 30 years at a municipal water treatment plant and inspire Michelle and her brother to go to Princeton.  I saw a potential first lady unlike any other we have seen before, one who — with her husband — represents a dramatic turn in our nation’s history which, in many ways, the Kennedys help inspire four decades ago.  I saw a literal passing of the torch from the great liberal heroes of my childhood to a new generation that presents the fulfillment of what they fought for.  I was particularly touched when Michelle quoted Barack saying, “The world as it is just won’t do: we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.”  That says it all

During the day I, like everyone else, find myself running from pillar to post attending different meetings and receptions.  But I had about an hour free so I went souvenir shopping for friends who couldn’t be here.  I went into one store and found my jaw hitting the floor when I found a t-shirt on display with both Barack and Hillary’s photos, with the legend beneath it saying “Bros before Hos.”  I was so stunned at the raw, visceral sexism of the t-shirt, in what seemed to be a perfectly respectable souvenir shop that I was literally rendered speechless (and people who know me, know that is a rare moment).  I looked around at the dozens of other customers, none of whom seemed to even notice the shirt.  I didn’t know what else to do but walk out, so I did.

Then tonight Hillary spoke, giving a magnificent address (my favorite line?  “No more, no way, no McCain.”)  I was never a Hillary supporter, having first (seemingly foolishly, in retrospect, given what we know now) backed John Edwards and then Barack, but tonight she made a believer of me.  I was particularly touched when she pointed out that, when her own Mom was born, women did not yet have the right to vote, and in this past primary her own daughter got to vote for her Mom to be President.  A wonderful symbol of progress.  But, as I was reminded in the T-shirt store today, we still have a ways to go.

I hope some day Hillary Clinton is President.  But I hope that day doesn’t come until 2016, when President Obama is term limited out.

Kevin Says... | 1 Comment »