Buckeye State - I know there are at least three Bhaus readers from Ohio, and I'd love it if they could respond to a quotation from an article on Salon.com today about the state of my birth:

"A crucial electoral battleground state, Ohio hasn't done well during the Bush era. In the last four years, it's lost a quarter million jobs. A report from the U.S. Census Bureau recently rated Cleveland the poorest big city in the country. Young people are leaving the state in droves. In August, Brent Larkin, editorial page director of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, wrote about Ohio's 'raging brain drain.'

But even as the state's economy decays, its big evangelical churches are thriving, and, with the tacit support of the national Republican Party, they have mobilized behind Issue 1. Preachers are exhorting flocks of thousands to vote their values in an election said to pit light against darkness. Ohio's gay citizens, a minority courted by no one, have been blindsided by the campaign against them. Many feel like they're under siege. Talk of moving to a friendlier state or country is widespread."

First question, why aren't most people voting their wallets instead of their values? Secondly, is being gay in Ohio really as dire as that quote would lead me to believe?