Love Is Love, Not Just Between Men and Women

Yesterday was a great day for human rights. The Supreme Court of the United States declared the Defense of Marriage Act, a provision for keeping marriage between men and women, unconstitutional with a majority of five votes to four. On the strength of DOMA, the federal government could choose not to apply the benefits granted to gay couples married in states where unions between couples of the same sex are legal. For example, the Internal Revenue Service had refused to refund more than $300,000 which Edie Windsor had paid for costs connected to the inheritance she received on the death of her wife Thea, with whom she had lived for 42 years and been married to for two years. Edie had taken the government to court. Yesterday Edie, and all of us along with her, won.

Discriminating against some couples married normally in respect to others is correctly considered a violation of the Fifth Amendment. Although the court’s decision barely affects the ban on marriage between people of the same sex still in force in the majority of states, it sanctions the unequivocal principle of equality of love, which is the basis for unions which are now of equal status, regardless of the sex of those involved.

Being a witness to this decision was one of the most beautiful experiences this country has given me. “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” wrote Martin Luther King; on Wednesday his words sounded prophetic once again.

Once again in the name of justice, I wish to see many people, an enormous number of people standing alongside Wendy Davis in the next conflict: derailing the disgusting proposal by Texan Republicans, who have turned to closing the majority of clinics in which assisted abortion is practiced. Two days ago, Wendy Davis, a Democratic state senator, talked for 11 hours uninterrupted to ensure the law wasn’t approved before midnight, so declaring it defeated.

For 11 hours, this woman, unknown to most before now, was not allowed to sit, drink, eat, go to the toilet nor even lean on the table. For 11 hours this woman fought for the rights of all women in Texas and, in another sense, for the entire country. Rick Perry, gunman governor of the state, has promised that he will return to office. Please take a seat, dear governor, for we will all be on our feet in support of Wendy — in support of rights. In support of a world which is moving toward the future despite people such as yourself. A world which yesterday declared unconstitutional what people like you claim to know: Who does and who does not have the sacrosanct right to love one another.