When my partner and I moved to Florida a few years ago, one of the first fellow gay couples we met were these two guys whom I'll call "Doug" and "Rick." We met them at the new gym we had joined. Doug is in his early 50s and Rick is about 10 years younger.

After getting to know them a bit it eventually dawned on us that Doug and Rick were two of those dreaded gay Republicans we had always read about. We noticed that whenever the topic of politics came up, usually with one or both of us slamming Bush or the Republicans, Doug and Rick would remain silent. Once we finally confirmed this with them, I must admit that it put the brakes on us getting any friendlier. We still chat with them at the gym and occasionally do something social. But with the disastrous state of our country today and with so much at stake right now in terms of gay rights, I just had a lot of trouble getting too chummy with gay folks so willing to vote against their own equal rights. I wish I could be more accepting, but I just can't. Not right now.

Anwyay, we saw Doug and Rick at the gym again last night and got to chatting, as we ususally do. I always try to avoid the topic of politics with them, but sometimes my partner likes to egg them on a bit (he's much more confrontational than I am!). So my partner mentioned the bailout fiasco and made a crack about John McCain. That was all it took for Doug to reveal that they were both voting Democratic this year, including voting for Obama.

It turns out that Doug and Rick were hurting much more than we had realized. Rick has a long commute to work each day, and they told us that with the rise in gas prices they figured out that he now must spend an additional $500 each month on gas. So Doug has been forced to work more overtime at his job to make up the difference.

Even worse, Rick just found out that his employer is no longer going to pay for his health care insurance. So not only does he have to pay for it himself, but he's scared to death about the fact that with his new private insurer his insurance could get dropped at any time. The lack of security is frightening to them, particularly now that they are starting to get up in age a bit.

"We just can't do it anymore," Doug said, referring to voting Republican. His comment was nearly identical to one made by a Republican woman from North Carolina when she spoke just prior to Obama's speech at the DNC Convention.

What this story illustrates to me is that every day, more and more Americans are finally seeing a direct connection between Republican policies and their own daily lives, and it's not a positive connection. Failed Republican policies are hurting average Americans, and hurting them in profound ways, and it's gotten so bad that people are finally waking up to this fact. It's sad that it has taken people like Doug and Rick more than 20 years to make this connection, but better late than never I guess. Hopefully it's not too late for us to turn things around under the leadership of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.