This morning, as I picked my son up from his crib, and he sleepily cuddled into the crook of my neck, I had a thought. In the wake of the election, I'd been musing about my responsibility to him, my responsibility to give him a decent world to live in. I found myself trying to find comfort in the fact that, despite it all, the world is still spinning. He can still make a living, he can still be relatively safe. But this morning I had a thought, one that I am ashamed to say had not occurred to me before now, not in any serious way.

What if Aidan is gay? What if he grows up to find comfort, happiness, and love with another man? What kind of world will I have given him, in that regard? The world he woke up to this morning is one where gay couples _can_ find love, support, even legal protection... just not in this country. In this country, today, he would find hatred, bigotry, and prejudice. He would find that we have elected officials who actively seek to deny him legal protections available to every other citizen. He would find a country that ignores AIDS, hoping that it will just go away. He would find a country where our elected President ascribes to a set of beliefs that say gay people are sinful aberrations.

I do not think I can live with that. I know I should not be able to.