With election day passed and a couple of days worth of rest, what do I do now? For more than a year I have volunteered for the Obama Campaign and served as the state organizer for Obama Pride North Carolina. Where do I go from here?
The greatest experience of my entire life, being a part of history, helping deliver North Carolina for Barack Obama. We hosted voter registration drives in gay clubs across the state, hosted house parties, block parties and took part in the states gay pride parades and festivals.
We worked with our local campaign offices in canvassing, phone banking and raising money. Of all the excitement of this campaign my most memorable moment was when I stood next to an older African-American female as she sobbed uncontrollably as they announced Barack had won.
My own emotions were very overwhelming as I stood there with her and held her in my arms, she told me of a story which I will never forget.
When she was a young woman back in the early 1960's, while on a freedom march in Charlotte, NC, a white woman spit in her face. She stood and took it because that was what Dr. King had taught, not to fight back.
As tears poured down her face she thanked me and all the other young people in the room, which was filled with a diverse group of people under 40. I could not imagine the feeling she had and will never know how it must feel to finally see a man of color, an African-American in the truest meaning, become the 44th President of the United States.
We have been a part of history and it is over whelming. But young white people, like myself, cannot know what it is like for those who suffered through the civil rights movement.
I know how overwhelming it is for me to know, we in the LGBT community, will have a true friend in the White House. I believe Barack Obama is the real hope we have been needing. He will help bridge the gap in relations between not only race, but sexual orientation.
Next week I will begin to find something else to keep me busy. I just wanted to share these thoughts with you.
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