In any war, there is a starter event, one in which a few select representatives of a repressed minority fight back, often with a show of violent civil disobedience. That event lets the world know that it is now at war and that the fight will continue until justice, or complete suppression, prevails. For the LGBT community, that was Stonewall.

Then there comes the most significant turning point in the struggle. It is the big battle where a winner-takes-all atmosphere hangs over the precursor of the event as a warning and a promise. It is an event where every interested party shows up, knowing that only one side will really walk away. In the Civil War that event was the battle at Gettysburg. For the LGBT community, this last Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, was our Gettysburg. (If you think that's not an apt analogy, check out this comparison map of the Civil War factions and today's electoral factions.) And we were the ones who got to walk away with the situation altered... forever.