Re: #158
1, 2, 3 occurred in 2008.
4, 5 occurred in 2010.
6, 7 occurred in 2012.
8, 9 occurred in 2013.
@DrGoogle LOL. Prop 8 (banning gay marriage) passed narrowly in 2008, and from there it was a long and winding road. A US District Court struck down the ban a year or two later, but IIRC put a stay on gay marriages pending appeal. In 2012 the 9th Circuit upheld the earlier ruling – banning the ban, if you’re still following – but left the stay in place. The case went to SCOTUS which in 2013 declined to rule on the grounds that the petitioners did not have standing (and the reason for that is because the CA Attorney General refused to defend the law, so the backers of the original proposition stepped in to carry it through the courts). That left the 9th Circuit decision in place, meaning gay marriage was legal. A few days later, the stay was finally removed. Attorney General Kamala Harris performed the first wedding after the stay was lifted, marrying two of the women who were plaintiffs in the suit. So gay marriage has been legal here since June 28, 2013.
BUT I know first hand that that wasn’t enough, and that what happened today mattered, even in states that already had marriage equality. I have a friend in San Diego who is going to marry her partner of 20 years later this summer. They’ve been planning this since last year, long before today’s ruling obviously. She told me several months ago that a small part of her was worried about SCOTUS and that after all this time, somehow her right to marry might still be taken away. She no longer has that worry. 
x-posted 4 or 5 other people.
As a woman whose ability to marry the love of her life was directly affected by the Loving vs.Virginia ruling, I just knew there was no way the SCOTUS would be able to deny the constitutional rights of gay couples to marry as well. I’m so happy about this decision. I would have been incredibly shocked had it gone the other way. This is yet another step toward this country’s full realization of its stated ideals, as outline in our most defining document. I wish I could kiss that document this very minute!
I’m very happy about the decision. It means a lot to me in a strictly personal sense, because now I know that my son can get married if he wants to, wherever he ends up working. (In academia, one never knows where that might be!) Still, I know there’s a lot of work left to be done for LGBT rights. There’s too much of the country where people might be able to marry whomever they want from here on in, but can still be fired (or denied employment or housing) simply because of who they are.
Here in Massachusetts, same sex marriages have been legal for over 11 years and in my small town there are several married same sex couples and lots of these couples have kids. This has become the new normal and my kids don’t remember the time before it was legal. And while they - and I- are thrilled with the news, we’ve long been perplexed as to why same sex marriage remained illegal in so many states till now! Happy loving and committed families come in all shapes and flavors…
I was taking a nap when my sister woke
me up with the wonderful news. I keep crying joyful tears! My dear child, and all his gay brothers and sisters through out the land, can legally marry!!! Rejoice!
America is one big rainbow tonight!
[San Francisco 49ers](49ers send a simple, strong message in wake of gay marriage ruling - ProFootballTalk)
Coke and Skittles (best time ever to be a rainbow) are two of the brands that have changed their Facebook pages to reflect support. Funny, all the millions spent on media - and a simple switch of a Facebook profile picture, which can be accomplished in just a few taps, likely has far more media impact.
While I am personally extremely supportive of the decision and think it’s high time, it does seem to me that the White House itself (meaning the actual house, not Pres Obama) should have remained neutral and not been bathed in rainbow colors. Unless what I’m seeing is photoshopped.
No, it’s real.
As there have been previous presidents who ignored AIDS when it was decimating the gay population, even when the Names Project quilt was laid out on the mall, White House support is symbolically important and appreciated. Having watched this struggle from the early days, I am so humbled and thankful.
To an earlier poster mentioning AIDS, one of the ways AIDs changed the landscape, is so many young men coming home to the small town and non coastal USA to die and later on, be healed. We learned that AIDs and the movement is not just a coastal and big city issue.
I hear you, greatlakesmom - while I’m personally thrilled to see the WH lit up in the rainbow, I just wonder whether it would have been a wise decision to have had the house itself remain neutral. I don’t recall the actual White House being lit up or “decorated” (for lack of a better term) for other SC decisions, no matter how momentous. Of course, I’m not referring to Obama himself - I love that he spoke out and I love that he called Obergefell personally.
Humbled- that’s a good word. And gratified. But I think that as big a country as this is, it’s going to be important to recognize this isn’t just a coastal thing or the influence of academic areas, youth, or the liberal voices. We can try to, recognize how the everyday folks, too, helped move the boat, and appreciate their humanity, as well. They may not pop up in front of us, wherever we live, but they, too, shifted their thinking over the years. It’s not just AIDS, not just tragedy. It’s how more insulated folks conquered fears and stereotypes, came to understand, even in bits, ‘live and let live.’
And we still have work to do, each of us, every community.
I’m proud that I converted my mother from thinking “gays should be allowed to have civil unions, but don’t call it marriage” to a full understanding of why it needed to be marriage and indistinguishable from opposite-sex marriages :-).
I was off cc almost all day, drunk in joy at the SCOTUS news. Today, I feel like I have the best hangover ever. I want to go back and read what everyone had to say. As we’ve been saying in Texas, love is love, y’all.
ETA: Well, not everyone in Texas. Clearly, we’ve elected some real losers.
I also think that, when some of us reach back in time, we can see it was our parents’ or grandparents’ generations that first offered issues of equality to us, some sense of a wider world than our own neighborhoods. I was quite young when I learned about the Civil Rights marches, etc.
@romani, I graduated from high school in 1970 and my best friend was gay. All of us knew but it wasn’t something that was widely discussed back then. When he told his parents, they refused to pay for college and kicked him out of the house. He lived with a variety of family friends, including my family, worked and eventually graduated from college. He moved to NYC and worked there for friends of my grandparents who were involved in the theatre business. He and hundreds of others of our generation who worked in the arts community in NYC contracted AIDS and didn’t survive. The illness was largely ignored by the medical community and the government, and yes, I do think that it is very fitting for the White House to be bathed in rainbow colors.
There were many who dreamed of the right to marry back then, My grandparents and parents all knew gay couples who had been together for decades but who had none of the rights of married couples. This sometimes resulted in devastating circumstances when one of them was admitted to the hospital, and even worse when one passed away. Many of those couples are long passed, never having had the opportunity to marry but there are still many of my parents’ friends who have been together for 40, 50, or more years who are rejoicing at the news from the SC. A wonderful decision and to come during Pride week, well, it’s definitely fitting.
Although it’s wonderful that the younger generation, for the most part, is so accepting and wise, this battle has been going on for many years and there are many individuals and groups who have been active who are of my generation, and beyond.
People in Dallas got married so fast after the ruling came down!
I had my first openly gay friend in college back in the mid-70’s. If he could’ve afforded to come to my wedding, I was planning on making him a “bridesmaid”. That would’ve gotten quite a reaction in 1979.
I also had a friend in grad school, raised Catholic and conservative, who chose me as the person he came out to. I felt honored that he felt comfortable and safe enough with me to do so.
Could any of us have imagined what happened yesterday back in the '70’s? I don’t think so.
Alwaysamom, have I not acknowledged over and over and over again that this victory is only possible because of older generations which have been fighting for decades?