“Change has come to America.” With those electric words, Barack Obama embraced his landslide election as the nation’s first-ever African American president. The soaring and inclusive rhetoric that inspired the support of so many, especially young voters, was on full display in Chicago’s Grant Park on Tuesday.

Just as in the 2004 keynote address to the Democratic convention that launched him as a national political figure, and just as he had throughout the primaries and general election, the brand new president-elect expressly included “gays and straights” as among the groups of Americans whose divisions he sought to unite.

Certainly, gay voters were united behind Barack Obama. Even though the Log Cabin Republicans endorsed John McCain and Sarah Palin as examples of “a different kind of Republican,” exit polls showed only 25 percent of gay, lesbian and bisexual voters went for the Republicans. That’s the same percentage George W. Bush received four years ago despite a snub by Log Cabin over his support for a federal marriage amendment.

When President Obama takes the oath of office in January, he will do so with a record of support for GLBT rights that eclipses that of any serious national candidate before him, including John Kerry in 2004, and including even Hillary Clinton and the other Democrats that Obama defeated this year during the primaries.

But along with the euphoria felt by many that Obama had transcended old divisions and united the country, there were sobering and painful reminders in Arizona, Arkansas, California and Florida of the ugly divisions based on sexual orientation that persist and grow deeper. In Arizona, California and Florida, voters supported constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage; and voters in Arkansas backed a ban on adoption and foster parenting by adults “cohabitating outside of marriage,” meaning gays or straights in unmarried relationships.

At least in Connecticut, where the state supreme court last month ruled in favor of gay marriage, voters rejected a constitutional convention that would have opened up the possibility of an amendment overturning that court victory.

Tuesday’s results remind us that throughout this country and even in progressive places like California, gays still face the refusal by their government to recognize their relationships – in many cases their discriminatory, second-class citizenship is even written into state constitutions.

There’s no time or political capital to waste on these narrow, limited measures. It’s politically unlikely the Democrats will ever enjoy a stronger majority in the House, and they may well be at their peak in the Senate. President-elect Obama will take office with a popular mandate unlike any since Ronald Reagan in 1980.

The time is now to see Congress and the president to take decisive action on the core of the gay rights movement – eliminating official discrimination against GLBT Americans. That means making sure Obama follows through on the positions he embraced as a candidate:

• Repealing of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, at least the portion that blocks federal recognition of marriage licenses issued by states like Massachusetts, California (at least for now), and Connecticut (as of next week).

• Extending marriage-like federal recognition to same-sex couples in civil unions (in states that offer them), or who can otherwise demonstrate an enduring, long-term commitment.

• Passing the Uniting American Families Act, extending to gay Americans the same right to sponsor foreign partners for citizenship that heterosexual citizens enjoy.

Obama was right, of course, when he reminded us, “This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change.” For those who care about taking full advantage of this historic moment to bring real equality for GLBT Americans, relationship recognition is the kind of “change” we need to believe in.