A Step in the Right Direction!

     A couple of posts ago, I asked readers to go to freedomtomarry.org and write a letter to their state representatives, pleading with them to work to pass a bill that legalizes gay marriage. I wrote my letter, and I hope that some of you did too.
    
     If you did, you might have made a difference. Yesterday, Obama declared that the federal government could no longer defend the fifteen year-old Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. It also states that no state needs to acknowledge a same-sex marriage just because another state deems it a marriage.
    
     So when Obama decided that the DOMA, which bans gay marriage, was unconstitutional, that was a step in the right direction. Not for just one state, but for the whole country.
And then to top it all off, today the Maryland Senate started the ball rolling by approving a bill that legalized gay marriage. Tomorrow, the House will begin their debate and voting process, and if they approve the bill, Governor O'Malley will sign the bill (as he promised to do during his run for office), and Maryland will become the 6th state to legalize gay marriage.

     So what does this mean? It means that we're finally making progress when it comes to establishing equal rights for everyone. It means that the people who have been fighting to legalize gay marriage against all odds are finally starting to feel a sense of victory. It means that our own president is finally willing to admit that a ban against gay marriage is unconstitutional and that people who are fighting for equality are finally getting support from their own government.

    Others will always fight to keep marriage as some kind of sacred and exclusive bond between a man and a woman. But we will keep fighting back. And someday, decades from now, people will laugh when they think that we ever had to fight at all. Someday marriage will be a right that is afforded to every couple. So keep writing and keep fighting until we've stomped out DOMA altogether!

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/24/134035020/after-obamas-gay-marriage-decision-a-new-world
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/24/maryland-senate-oks-bill-on-gay-marriage/