This morning I had some paperwork that I HAD to get done, and did. And I made it back to my office exactly at 10:00 AM. I immediately got online to the SCOTUSblog site, to see what the Supremes did with the same sex marriage case.
First message was Kennedy was reading it. That gave me hope. And then I saw that the court had ruled for same sex marriage. I gave a little whoop in my office, wiped my wet eyes, and immediately hit social media. I spent the next twenty minutes on Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo. And I smiled like a fool the entire time.
I did little through out the day. There were other things I had to do, and I did them. But my mind wasn't on it. I wasn't as bad as some online friends, who spent the afternoon celebrating with champagne and hugging each other (oh, if only I could have done that), but my mind was nowhere NEAR work.
Even now, I don't think it's hit me.
I remember 2004, that election, when Karl Rove got all that anti-gay marriage amendments in all the states to be voted on, using gay rights as a ralling point to bring out voters anxious to vote for hate and bigotry. I remember 2003, when the Supreme Court ruled anti-sodomy laws throughout the country as illegal. How happy it made me to know I could no longer go to jail just to having sex. I remember also in 2004 when Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay marriage, how happy I was, but I knew MY state of Pennsylvania wouldn't have it for many many years to come. And nationwide gay marriage probably wouldnt even happen in my lifetime, I knew.
I remember 2012, when Maryland, the state I work in, had the voters, the PEOPLE of Maryland, approve gay marriage for its citizens. But I knew Pennsylvania was still years away, and the nation as a whole even further.
I remember two years ago today, the outright SHOCK I felt, while at work, when I heard the Supreme Court had overturned DOMA and said the Federal government could no longer refuse to recognize gay marriages where they were already legal. I remember in 2014, when through the courts, gay marriage became legal in my own state, and how happy I was.
But today....today, is even moreso. Even though I could already have married the man I loved in the state I lived in, today was so much more.
Not only does it free gays and lesbians EVERYWHERE to marry who they love, this decision does more. It says, paraphrasing Justice Kennedy, that gays and lesbians are 'deserving of equal dignity' under the Constitution. It says that now, EVERYONE knows and legally MUST recognize that gays and lesbians are NOT second class citizens. That we are NOT just here to be mocked, and beaten up, and degraded and discriminated again and the whim of the majority. It says we, it says *I* am equal to EVERYONE else in this country, regardless of who I love and may decide to marry.
As I type this, for the first time today, I actually am crying. My cheeks are wet. I simply can not believe this day has come, and so quickly. Just 11 years ago, nowhere in the USA could I marry the man I love, and not I can do it anywhere. The speed of this chance, and the change in public opinion, from 27% approving in 1996 to over 60% approving now, is just mind boggling.
I am truly overwhelmed. And now, despite having to work tomorrow morning, I'm going to have a few drinks to commemorate this occasion.
Oh, and here's some things I've seen online today.
POLT
