The Bilerico Project | Daily experiments in LGBTQ

It's the day after the election and President Barack Obama won reelection yesterday with a narrow majority of the popular vote and a decisive margin in the electoral college.

Equally or perhaps more importantly, marriage equality has finally broken its 32 state loosing streak, and in a dramatic fashion at that. As of writing this at midnight PST, my home state of Maine has come down in favor of same-sex marriage, and so has Maryland.

In Washington state marriage is looking good, with support for equality polling ahead in a tight contest, with some news outlets calling it a done deal.

And in Minnesota, after an even tighter race, voters elected to prevent an amendment banning same-sex marriage from becoming enshrined in the state constitution.

These victories are important, both for their real-world impact and for what they say about the changing place of LGBT people in the United States. But in the midst of success, we need to remember that there are profound issues that effect our community beyond marriage rights. We need to be able and willing to turn the economic, social, and political might that we've honed through the struggle for marriage equality and apply it to other issues effecting the LGBT community such as ENDA, homelessness, immigration equality, the unique needs of queer people of color, trans* inclusion, and many others.

With that in mind, here are some things you need to know today:

• Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin has become the first openly gay senator in United States history.
• In the continue issue over trans* student rights in East Aurora Il, the school board has announced that they probably won't fire the official who suggested the pro-trans*-equality policy to the board.
• Not content with destroying the lives of gay people, Focus on the Family is beginning to push anti-trans* "reparative" therapy, and they are setting their sights on young, vulnerable, trans* kids and their families.
• The National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration has had to explain to a Hollywood-trained populace why they don't use nuclear bombs on hurricanes.
• In the wake of President Obama's reelection victory, Donald Trump had a total meltdown on Twitter, calling for a "revolution."
• Malawi has temporarily suspended their anti-LGBT laws while the government debates the future of said laws.
• Anti-equality organization Protect Marriage Maine's closing argument yesterday was one of the most bigoted and disgusting attacks in the history of the same-sex marriage fight.
• The road to same-sex marriage in France continues to prove rockier than anticipated.
• In Iowa, Justice David Wiggins, who was part of the court decision legalizing same-sex marriage in that state, narrowly won reelection to the bench.
• Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have become the first presidential pair since 1972 in which both the president and vice president lost their home state.
• On the verge of election day, President Obama wrote a lovely letter in response to a young girl who had written him about her two dads.
• Finally, it's hard not to take some vindictive delight in Mitt Romney's concession speech, although I can't help feel a bit bad for him at the same time. The presidency is all this guy has wanted and worked for for nearly a decade, and it's always a bit hard to watch someone's dreams die. But gods I'm glad he lost.