Supreme Court Ruling Makes Same-Sex Marriage a Right Nationwide

Wow. Even though the prevailing winds of the last couple of years were blowing this way, it is still stunning to see this happen. Justice Anthony Kennedy’s appointment to the Supreme Court preceded my coming out by a couple of months in 1988. I never thought I’d see this issue decided affirmatively by the Supreme Court in my lifetime. But with his majority decisions in the Romer (1996), Lawrence (2003), Windsor (2013) cases and now Obergefell, I have lived and witnessed a sea change I didn’t think possible as a young 20-something.

I haven’t said this to many people, but I made a conscious decision as a 2nd grader not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance (although I did mouth it so as not to stand out). Why? I didn’t believe in those last few words, “with liberty and justice for all.” I didn’t think I was included in the “all.” As an 8 year old! At first, it was because I felt an outsider as US-born child of immigrants, and later it was legalized discrimination as a gay person.

Today, as someone who has been an American citizen my entire life, I finally feel more “American.” Thank you Anthony Kennedy and all the people over the years who stood up to make a difference.