Not that I ever would be but the results of Tuesday's elections does not leave the GOP with a lot to celebrate.

Right here in Albany, one of its Red Rock Republican suburbs, Colonie, has broken 80 years of one party rule by electing a majority of Democrats to its town council. As of press time, the results of the town supervisor's race are still up in the air. The Democratic challenger has a slim lead over the long-time Republican incumbent but the count won't be final until all the absentee ballots tallied.

In Virginia, after a decade of total dominance, the Republicans lost control of the State Senate giving Democratic Governor Tim Kaine at least one house with which he can work. This also sets the stage for next year's U.S. Senate race where analysts are now considering Virginia a battleground state.

Gay-baiting auto-calls from the baby boomer crooner Pat Boone did not win the day for Ernie Fletcher, Kentucky's first Republican Governor in over thirty years. Fletcher's one-term tenure was marked with scandal and homophobia—much like his campaign. Not even the smooth voice of Boone who told voters that the Democratic candidate, former Lt. Governor Martin Bashear, would turn the Blue Grass State into "another San Francisco" scared the voters into keeping Fletcher in office.

And then there were those 31 gay candidates, endorsed by the Victory Fund, who got elected across the country. We now have an openly gay mayor, Democrat Craig Covey, in Ferndale, just outside of Detroit, MI, where Affirmations, the area's LGBT services center recently moved into a new multi-million facility. The Victory Fund is the LGBT community's national political action organization that trains candidates and puts its money where its mouth is by raising funds for their endorsed candidates. Of the 71 endorsements this year, the 31 who were successful on Tuesday join 10 who were elected throughout the country earlier in the year.

Among the stand-outs of those LGBT candidates are Democrats Michelle Bruce, an openly transgender incumbent on the Riverdale, GA City Council who was the top vote getter and will now advance to a runoff election and Lydia Lavelle who became the seventh openly LGBT candidate in North Carolina to win office by taking a seat on the Carrboro Board of Alderman.

But Michelle and Lydia aren't the only ones to take their rightful place in the South. There’s Republican Brian Bates from Georgia. He won a seat on the Doraville City Council and is the first openly gay Republican to win a seat in that state.

Now, I know that all these LGBT elected officials give the top of the GOP a big headache but having one of their own who is also one of our own get elected must make for a splitting migraine. While the Republican talk about a "big tent" it's hard to feel welcome when the rhetoric is always so homophobic. Perhaps Brian will be able to bring a little humanity to his party because the compassionate conservatism of George Bush certainly hasn't.

It seems as if we may be heading into a perfect storm of change in this country. People are fed up with Bush and the war. Gas is now over $3 a gallon and the housing market is in a free fall. Health care is still a privilege, not a right. Gay bashing politics just ain't what it used to be as evidenced by Wednesday's Congressional vote of 235-184 to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. What's a Republican to do?

Well, it might be time to read the handwriting on the wall and recognize that it's no longer business as usual. It's time to pay attention to the trends.

When it comes to the mountain, Midwest and southern states—what pundits consider the red Republican ones—folks running for office from either party need to recognize that the number of LGBT couples moving into their neighborhood is increasing at what some may consider "an alarming rate."

According to a new study from the Williams Institute out of the UCLA Law School, the number of couples who identify as same-sex has quadrupled to nearly 780,000 since 1990. Now, conventional wisdom would lead one to think that New York and California would see the biggest increase.

That couldn't be farther from the truth. We're moving to the states that have passed amendments to ban same-sex marriage. And what state has the largest increase? Utah.

Perhaps as Gary Gates, the study's author put it, we need to get ready for some "purple states." And what a lovely color it is.