Yes, we can.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Well since I've already offered an unpopular opinion, I'll go ahead and offer another.

The day will come when gay people have the right to marry, I'm sure of that. It will not come by way of anger though. It will not come by way of shouting at and insulting those that disagree. Nobody has ever changed their opinion after being yelled at. Rather, it gives them further justification for their opinion, misguided as it may be. It gives them the ability to band together even more fervently and grind everything to a halt. And until people realize this, change is going to be an excruciatingly slow process.

I know plenty of religious people that found it in their heart to vote against Prop 8, because they understood that it was the right thing to do, even if their religion told them otherwise. And I heard many of these same people say, once the protests started, that they were no longer sure that they had voted correctly. For regardless of their vote, they were all demonized just for belonging to a church that, in many cases, they disagreed with on this issue. And I have to wonder, if the vote was held again today, would the votes for prop 8 decrease or actually increase, based on the subsequent anger that was shown towards anyone who dared to belong to one of these churches.

I think that achieving gay rights is a vital cause. But, at the risk of offending people, I think the way people are going about it is too often misguided at best, harmful at worst. It's kind of like what I tell some of my religious friends - when you get in people's faces and tell them they are horrible, you alienate and turn off far more people than you convert. Often, I think we are guilty of the same thing.

For left to their own devices, the church was doing a piss-poor job of keeping their bigotry alive. Each year, more and more people were supporting gay rights, because their heart told them something different than the church was telling them. In my opinion, change was moving more quickly than it is now. And then, when Prop 8 failed to be defeated, things got mighty ugly and through their anger and disappointment, many opponents of the Proposition began going way over the top in their insults towards religious people. I honestly think the nasty reaction to the aftermath of Prop 8 potentially set progress back by 5 years. And that really sucks.

As far as Obama goes, rumor has it that he is considering appointing the first openly gay man as Secretary of the Navy. He also made a campaign promise to rescind the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy of our military. And should he succeed, it is going to royally piss off plenty on the other side. On the flip side, Obama is giving a man with an opposing viewpoint the time to say a three minute prayer. Sounds like, overall, one side is going to eventually make out far better here as a result of Obama's presidency and it isn't the pastor's side I speak of. I will wait before I demonize Obama on this issue. I want to see what he has in store first.

Finally, my intention honestly is not to demean everyone who was involved in these protests. I understand where their hearts were, I understand their disappointment and anger, of which I most certainly shared. And most importantly, I understand and dearly appreciate that the reason they stood there with those signs was to help me achieve the same rights as everyone else. But I don't think that the specific signs that ridiculed people with religious beliefs, or boycotts that had the potential of hurting good employers, or refusing to be a guest at a straight person's wedding are the answers. I think they are reactions based on anger and pain alone, rather than ideas that are ever going to be truly effective. I see some of this as a massive PR failure.

Again, I agree with the cause; I don't agree with many of the tactics that I've seen, even if I sympathize with the reasons behind them.