Next Wednesday Americans will wake to a brighter future – those whose presidential candidate won of course.

That will not be the case for gay and lesbian teenagers. Neither Sen. Barack Obama nor Sen. John McCain fully embraced them as equal before God.

Looking back on an election that in one cycle had an African-American running for president, a female running for her party’s presidential nomination and a woman on another party’s presidential ticket, news pundits no doubt will reflect on the significance of 2008 as a year that history truly was made.

Regardless of the election’s outcome, those historical analyses should prove uplifting in recognizing the progress represented in this election for African-Americans and women.

But next Wednesday gay and lesbian teens will wake under the same burden of prejudice and hostility that exists today in so much of America. A recent report on hate crimes against LGBT people shows that burden is indeed unbearable.

While there may be a significant win or loss for marriage equality in California, neither presidential candidate supported the concept that gay and lesbian Americans deserve the same human dignity bestowed upon heterosexual couples who choose to navigate life’s ups and downs with a partner they love, honor and cherish.

For a gay or lesbian teenager, the message that they are somehow not worthy of that basic human right will remain in place and anti-gay religious and political groups will be preparing for yet another battle – regardless of whether the California marriage proposition fails or passes.

That means the prejudice and hostility toward gay and lesbian people that flourishes across this nation will continue and gay teenagers will remain on the front lines.

This week, I was told of a couple in my hometown whose 14-year-old son had asked to be enrolled in a private school because of the taunting and bullying he faced at school. A quiet and timid child who made perfect grades, his parents were told by a teacher that students calling their son “fag” and other names is just the way things are.

That teacher was correct but it is something we can no longer accept.

I also recently have spent some time visiting churches who pastors or pastoral staff are non-affirming and non-accepting.

These pastors or youth ministers tell me they have kids under their tutelage who are “struggling” with the “gay lifestyle.” As these people tell me that they consider homosexuality a sin and that same-sex attraction is abominable before God, I know those kids are being told the same thing.

I sat last week in a break-out session at a conference in Nashville, Tennessee and listened as a mother told of the pain she is experiencing because her daughter is in a same-sex relationship. She spoke of the fact that her negative feelings toward her daughter came from being taught by her church that same-sex attraction is a sin and unacceptable to God. Therefore she had deemed her daughter’s relationship as unacceptable. But worse, it caused her to view her daughter as unacceptable.

On Wednesday of next week, the day will dawn with millions of people of faith still holding the attitude that gay and lesbian individuals somehow are not equal beside us nor before our God – despite the framers of our Constitution knowing otherwise.

Whichever candidate wins next week, there are millions of gay and lesbian citizens hoping the new president will work hard to dispel that fallacy.

For the young teenager out there today who is about to be beaten, taunted or even killed, surely our next president will recognize the urgency.

Brent Childers serves as executive director of Faith In America, a nonprofit organization working to educate Americans about the harm caused by religion-based hostility and prejudice toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans.