Announcing the 2008 AfterElton.com Visibility Awards

Photo credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images

What’s change you can believe in? How about when, in his election night victory speech, President-Elect Barack Obama made a point to include gay people in the American fabric? “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer,” he said. “It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled.”

Such GLBT-inclusive rhetoric is always welcome, but it seemed particularly cathartic coming after eight years when George W. Bush didn’t just ignore us, he and his party actively demonized us, pandering to the worst anti-gay bigotries in order to improve their electoral prospects. Change is coming — and AfterElton.com readers (and editors, too) couldn’t be happier.

Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

There was no equivocation here: AfterElton.com readers chose the passage of Proposition 8 as the Worst Gay Moment of 2008 by a large measure. And how could it be otherwise? But the story of GLBT equality is still being told, and the hopeful, spontaneous protests that followed the initiative’s passage suggest that this defeat could, ironically, be an important, galvanizing moment for our community. Even this very darkest of clouds may have a small silver lining.