Why I Quit Missing Elections

On May 13, Austin voters will get to decide whether the city should repeal its current ban on offering benefits to domestic partners of city employees.

The city council approved domestic partner benefits in 1993, but the religious right mobilized to overturn this policy in a 1994 referendum. The loving hearts at Skyview Baptist Church on Koenig Lane went so far as to announce that God voted to ban domestic partner benefits on their marquee. I thought that was really funny until they pulled 62% of the vote.

Unfortunately, I didn’t bother to vote in that election because I figured Austin was liberal enough to reject such a discriminatory measure without me. Because people like me stayed home, there is at least one same sex couple that had to pay $25,000 out of pocket to diagnose a benign tumor. I can't remember why I missed the election, but I haven't forgotten that I helped keep life a bit more unfair for a lot of good people by not voting.

I don't think I've missed an election since then and I won't be missing this one.