Love Wins

Today is a monumental day in the history of the United States. The Supreme Court of the United States voted that marriage should be afforded to every American, homosexual and heterosexual.

As an ally and a believer in equality for all I hoped this day would come. I was skeptical about the court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, yet I remained hopeful.

Last night I watched a documentary for the right to marry in California. The program also highlighted the first ever court case for same sex marriage, filed by Richard John Jack Baker and James Michael McConnell in 1970. The case, Baker vs Nelson, went to the Supreme Court in 1972.

http://www.marriageequality.org/jack_mike_our_pioneers

My introduction to the cause for marriage equality was when Proposition 8 was being voted in California. The case eventually went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. In 2013 the court ruled that the state of California could not deny the right to marriage to any of its citizens. Marriage ceremonies sprang up in cities all over California within moments.

That landmark case paved the way for more states to fight their own battles in the courtroom. My state of Indiana fought that case and won the right of all couples to marry just last year. In fact, it was one year ago yesterday that the state of Indiana began performing marriage ceremonies for same sex couples.

In recent news, countries around the world voted on this issue. The country that made the most headlines in legalizing same-sex marriage was Ireland. However, there are many countries that have legalized same sex marriage:

Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, French Guiana, Greenland, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Uruguay, Wales.

You can now add the United States of America to that list.

http://qz.com/438526/countries-where-gay-marriage-is-legal-nationwide/

For more than a month now the Human Rights Campaign and other equal rights organizations have been urging their followers on social media to look for news on the Supreme Court ruling. Finally today the court ruled in favor of marriage equality. Here are some of quotes from Justice Anthony Kennedy:

"The nature of marriage is that, through its enduring bond, two persons together can find other freedoms, such as expression, intimacy, and spirituality. This is true for all persons, whatever their sexual orientation."

"A third basis for protecting the right to marry is that it safeguards children and families and thus draws meaning from related rights of childrearing, procreation, and education."

"As all parties agree, many same-sex couples provide loving and nurturing homes to their children, whether biological or adopted. And hundreds of thousands of children are presently being raised by such couples."

"Without the recognition, stability, and predictability marriage offers, their children suffer the stigma of knowing their families are somehow lesser. They also suffer the significant material costs of being raised by unmarried parents, relegated through no fault of their own to a more difficult and uncertain family life. The marriage laws at issue here thus harm and humiliate the children of same-sex couples."

As a child, I remember having to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in school, while gazing upon the U.S. flag, with my right hand over my heart, reciting the words by rote with the rest of my class…..

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic

for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.”

I grew up believing those words. I believed that the U.S. was a fair country and that everyone had equal rights. As I grew up, I learned the history of this nation was full of examples to the contrary. However, when a wrong is discovered, it is up to us to right it. No matter how long it takes.

It is staggering to think that marriage equality took forty-five years to become a reality. But today is the day. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled on the case, Obergefell vs Hodges. Their ruling makes marriage equality legal, forevermore.

A new day has come. Today is one of the days that I am proud to be an American.

Liberty and justice for all. Game over homophobia. Love wins.