Ever feel like you are in Pee Wee's Playhouse?

The zig-zag red door, the talking chair, the idiotic big kid in a suit...

Well, i do...and if we actually were in Pee Wee's World, the secret word of the day, or in this case, of the next few months, would be 'bittersweet.'

This past Tuesday, November 4th, was nothing more than bittersweet. (ahhhhhh!)

America elected it's first African American President. We are setting a new precedent and being recognized worldwide as a different kind of nation than we were a week ago.

So, what makes this victory so bittersweet? (ahhhh!) It is something that baffles me even as I type. How can we, as a people, make such a strong statement about change, progress, and equality, and in the very same breath, make an equally strong statement endorsing hate and discrimination?

As America made this historical victory for democracy and people of color, it/we (as a nation) also approved the following: Initiative 1 (Arkansas) which prevents all unmarried people from adopting and fostering, Proposition 8(California), Measure 2 (Florida), and Measure 102(Arizona) which all deny same-sex marriage and rights.


How bittersweet (ahhh!) a victory when we can say, you as a black man, should have the right and opportunities to sit as the highest level of power in this, one of the world's greatest nations, meanwhile, others are not even afforded the basic human right to marry or adopt!

A little over 40 years ago, a black person and a white person were not legally allow. Today, this thought seems ridiculous, so I ask, what is the difference?

To deny two consenting adults to a right that is, today, taken for granted by so many, is so incredibly discriminatory, anti-progressive, and Anti-American that it makes me ill.

In Pee Wee's world, the head of a genie, who's name was Jambi, lived in a box, and would, once a day, grant Pee Wee one wish. Instead of a bodiless genie, our government relies on an imaginary being who "created" us all, lives high amongst the clouds and watches over us all...

Our genie, unlike Pee Wee's, tells us what to do. He tells us how to live. And he tells us what is right and wrong. He knows all. We know nothing. And the little that we do know, we only know because he told us...unless it is "bad," then we learned it from another genie; one that prefers a more warmer climate.

In our world, our genie is great. He promotes love, kindness, compassion, and all that is good. He only has one rule, do unto others as you would want them to do onto you. Sounds pretty simple right?

Well, his followers like this rule a lot too, except they added just a little subtext. It now goes, " Do unto others as you would want them to do onto you, unless they are different."

The differences vary, and change over time, but there are a few that have pretty much remained constant, blacks, women, and gays.


As a Lesbian woman of color, I am basically hated by all genie's followers. Unfortunately, for me and others like me, the genie lovers managed to somehow use this new and amended rule in ways that I am sure our genie would not like.

They look positions of power. They convinced others that this was the way to be, to live, to love, to think...and just like that, "mecca lecca hi, mecca hiney ho," I am less than a second class citizen in my own country.

A bittersweet (ahhhh!) victory indeed.