Tuesday night's elections in California were full of victories for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. Meg "Civil Unions Are Good Enough" Whitman was defeated by pro-equality Jerry Brown, in spite of the more than $150 million of her personal fortune she poured into her campaign. And this morning Kamala Harris pulled ahead of Steve Cooley in her race for Attorney General, though the race is very close and votes are still being counted. Both Brown and Harris have sworn not to defend Prop. 8 in federal court, so their victories will help to protect the critical ruling by District Court Judge Walker that Prop. 8 is unconstitutional. There's also great news for LGBT candidates and allies, as well as for a couple offices key to our progress over the next several years.

Why did these candidates win? In part, it's because they fully and publicly support LGBT rights. Candidates who are timid and afraid to take a stand don't win their races. Equality California only endorses candidates who are 100 percent for full equality and nothing less.

It's also because we as a community put in the time and effort needed to ensure these candidates win. Equality California and our volunteers did everything we could to ensure that pro-equality voters turned out to vote for pro-equality candidates. We reached out to 400,000 pro-equality voters by mail, another 90,000 over the phone and in person, more than 600,000 online and millions more through the media. Thousands of you showed up to volunteer and to vote. And it shows in the results.