With Election 2012 now in our rear-view mirror, President Obama re-established as our leader for the next 4 years, and equality winning huge around the country, the hate mongers are coming out of the woodwork!  From National Organization for Marriage’s leader, Tony Perkins, all the way down to high school kids, the level of sheer hatred and intolerance is deeply disturbing.

Because equality won big, and it did, because the United States’ first black President, Barack Obama, won big, and he did, bigots from coast-to-coast and border-to-border are screaming hate at the top of their lungs to a point where, just days after the General Elections, it’s easy to see that this will be a frightening four years.

Immediately following the elections Tuesday night, many, many people, Donald Trump, included, took to the twitterverse with vile, menacing, racist, and even threatening tweets.  Perhaps most troubling were the tweets that came from the high school students.  Teenagers.  Their level of disrespect, hatred, and intolerance was frightening.  It clearly illustrated the depth of the problems we face as we work hard to eliminate bullying in the schools.  What this also clearly shows is that whatever efforts we’re putting forth right now is not NEARLY enough!!  We’re not even scratching the surface of just how troubled today’s youth are.  And, as the adage “hatred and intolerance are taught to young people” goes, these high school students have had hatred scholars as teachers.

Tuesday’s election results sent such a shockwave across our country, there have even been people fired from their jobs because of things they tweeted once we knew for sure Obama had won.  Their disgust at the idea of another 4 years of a Black president is now being worn on their sleeves, expressed in cyberspace.

The attack on equality and race wasn’t, by any means, restricted to high school students or ice cream store employees.  From Donald Trump, to Brian Brown, to Tony Perkins, people – white people – were letting their disgust get the better of them.  Perkins, the head of designated hate group Family Research Council (SPLC),   went on record as saying that if the Supreme Court rules in favor of marriage equality, it could lead to a revolution.

“I think if the court steps in at this moment and says, ‘We’re redefining marriage, same-sex marriage will be the law in every land,’ I’ll tell you what, I think you will create a firestorm of opposition,”  And, “”When you look at a nation that is so divided along these moral and cultural issues, that you could have, I hate to use the word, but a revolt, a revolution.”

A revolution!?  Why?  Because people want the right to love who they love?  Because people want to have the right to marry who they love?  What, exactly, is it about Mr. Perkins that prevents him from understanding that whom someone else loves is absolutely none of his business?  Is granting everyone the right to marry the person they love really worth a revolution?  According to Tony Perkins, the answer is an emphatic “yes”.  That’s dangerous.Brian S. Brown.  The very mention of that name is to pour salt into wounds within the LGBT community.  Brian S. Brown, director of the National Organization of Marriage, whose sole mission and reason for existence is to prevent same-sex couples from getting married, went into a frenzy following Tuesday night’s stunning defeats.  Rather than understanding and accepting that voters nationwide voted against hatred, Brown vowed to dig in and fight even harder.  Rather than accept and understand that the world, and America, is finally evolving from its Ozzie and Harriet mentality and becoming a true reflection of the world as it exists in 2012, Brown blamed being outspent, which is highly unlikely, and even presidential candidate Mitt Romney for the sweeping defeats.  Rather than accept and understand that the voters, the people of this country, sent him a clear message that hatred and intolerance is finally becoming yesterday’s news, Brown vows to keep fighting.  Now, he wants to direct his venom towards corporations that support same-sex marriage, in particular Starbuck’s:

According to an article in The Advocate:

…Brown promised to keep up the fight against same-sex marriage and asked his followers for more money. The group is also going after corporations like Starbucks which publicly advocate for marriage equality. NOM’s plan is to garner support in the Middle East, an area hostile to same-sex marriage and an area the coffee chain is interested in expanding in.

“[Starbucks’s] international outreach is where we can have the most effect,” Brown said. “So for example, in Qatar, in the Middle East, we’ve begun working to make sure that there’s some price to be paid for this. These are not countries that look kindly on same-sex marriage. And this is where Starbucks wants to expand, as well as India. So we have done some of this; we’ve got to do a lot more.”

STOP!!!!  Enough of the hatred!!  Brian Brown’s hate group is planning actions that they know full well could lead to the death of innocent members of the LGBT community in Qatar as well as the Starbuck’s employees, themselves.  They are so bitter in their hatred, so determined to impose their hateful views on the world, they’re perfectly fine with the idea that innocent people could, and probably would!, be killed.

If you want to be hateful, spiteful, and intolerant in your own personal and private life, that’s your right.  We, The People, however, the voters, told you loudly and clearly that we don’t want any part of your bigotry.  That, however unfortunate, does not register with those who are filled with hatred and intolerance.  And, it doesn’t seem to deter Brian S. Brown.  And, because of that reality, it is incumbent upon us to continue the fight that has gotten us to the point we are today.  There is now a petition that aims to prevent the National Organization of Marriage from derailing Starbuck’s.  Hopefully, every reader will sign and share it.  We can’t afford to rest on the laurels of our victories Tuesday night.

In the real world, Tuesday night, November 6th, the American voter sent a very clear message.  The victories were decisive.  We, The People, aren’t about hatred and intolerance.  We, The People, are about acceptance and inclusion.  The world is ever-evolving.  This is not the same America as it was during the Ozzie and Harriet years.  We’re much more diverse than we were in the 1950’s.  Accept it.