Monday, June 29, 2015

There is Still Work, But

Friday turned into an exciting day, given the Supreme Court's ruling on marriage equality.  Hawaii did not have anti-miscegenation laws, which was fortunate for me, since they would have impacted my great grandparents, and then, well, I might not be here.  (To say nothing of the subsequent marriages in the chain leading to me.  Although the Supreme Court had ruled such laws invalid by the time of my parents marriage.) I know some, including, ahem, one of the Supreme Court justices, do not agree that the reasoning is similar, but the parallels have seemed unavoidable to me.  So, I am quite happy that same sex marriage will now be treated nationally as, well, marriage. 
Certainly, this isn't the end of work to be done for LGBTQ rights, but it's a really huge step, and I have to tell you I would not have believed this rapid progress was possible had I not lived through it.  But I am so grateful to all those who did believe, and who kept working even when it was hard, even when it seemed impossible, because they got us here.  Social change is never swift, and often, as in the case of Mr. Obergefell comes after the death of his spouse, but it's here.  The lovely posts at places like Freedom to Marry of folks getting to get married in their home state was just lovely, and I'm going to work to maintain this happy bubble and realize that I was lucky enough to see the results of a lot of people's hard work to make this day happen.