"Sanity is not statistical."

George Orwell wrote that in Nineteen Eighty-Four, and I've always found comfort in those words when confronted with long odds, overwhelming opposition, tyranny of the majority and large groups of ignorant assholes.

Orwell's wisdom has been popping into my shaking head lately as I read about how the religious right succeeded in banning gay marriage in California with a ballot initiative called Proposition 8.

On Nov. 4, 52% of California voters chose sexual inequality on the same day that 52% of voters chose racial equality by electing Barack Obama president.

That doesn't make any sense to me - Orwell wouldn't get it either - but what I find really mind-blowing is that exit polls revealed Hispanics and blacks strongly supported Prop 8. In fact, according to the polls, about 70% of blacks voted yes on Prop 8.

Let me restate that: Many members of one disenfranchised minority group sided with the establishment and helped take something away from another disenfranchised minority group.

It's the kind of thing that defies logic and makes a lonely cabin far off in the woods seem pretty attractive when compared to living in what is clearly a backwards, fractured society.

You'd really think black Americans would get the equality thing by now.

See, blacks should understand what it's like to be oppressed, beaten down and persecuted. They should understand how it feels to be labelled "second class" for no good reason. They should understand the pain of having rights taken away and having to live by a special set of laws. They should realize that Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream isn't any closer to becoming a reality just because a black man will soon sit in the Oval Office.

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident - that all men are created equal,'" King said in his famous 1963 speech in Washington, D.C.

Notice King didn't add "except for faggots and queers and Asians." He said "all men," meaning 'all people' in the days before gender-neutral pronouns, and I believe he meant exactly that.

And if King could dream of a day when black girls and black boys could join hands with white girls and white boys, why not dream of a day when boys of any colour can join hands with each other and say, "I do"?

Hell, why not make that day a reality by casting a ballot for equality? Why not band together and tell the Christian right that their discriminating God isn't welcome in America? Why not cast a ballot for the minority and make the nation's celebration not about race, sexuality, gender or religion but about equality for all people?

That would have made sense to me, and as blacks celebrate a major political victory, I feel angry. I just don't see any cause for celebrating in a nation that gives with one hand and takes with another, and I'm disappointed that black Americans missed such a glowing chance to strike a real blow for equality.

Mike Warkentin thought Proposition 8 was nonsense.