On November 6, 2012, voters in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington State approved same-sex marriage. The timing was right. America was ready for a fundamental change. History was made. What if a state had voted on this divisive issue one year earlier? Would voters have been ready then? What if the culture war at the core of the Equal Rights Movement and same-sex marriage had escalated beyond words into civil war during the campaign? What if radicals from the turbulent Vietnam War Era fought this war their way? The Dark Blue Heart is set one year before the November 2012 election, before a quartet of states changed history. It is set in the fictitious state of Columbiana. But it could be Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, or Washington. Or it could be Colorado or Indiana. What if it were the state in which you live?