One slightly off topic point to Rick's view on access to college education. Loans aren't hard to get just for mortgages and Big Three Auto companies
My girlfriend has a kid in college right now. The loan was fairly easy to get a year ago, but even then the credit was tightening. I don't have much hope that it won't tighten more this year and next. And even without being able to add my income to the various forms (hey, MO voted a gay marriage ban into our state constitution in 2004), my girlfriend still makes too much for many grant programs.
Back on topic, I believe gay issues in general are gaining traction and will continue to. I remember back in the nineties when the Hawaiian gay-marriage/union cases hit my radar. At that time there were many(maybe even a majority)
in the gay community who weren't convinced that the battle for gay-marriage was worth fighting. Even as recently as 2004, polls indicated a narrow nationwide support for gay marriage bans. How many swing-states had amendments on the ballots that year? I know it was more than just Missouri - and most of them passed, if I recall correctly, by significant margins. So, we have gone from ambivalence in the community and majorities of "straights" opposing gay marriage to an increasing acceptance of gay marriage and even more acceptance of civil-unions. It's happening, slowly maybe, but it is happening.
