This is going to be an incredibly impromptu post, but one I felt I had to write.

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide. Same-sex couples can now get married anywhere in the country, and that marriage is recognized in every state.

This is monumental. While I live in a state that has “allowed” same-sex marriage for years (a term I hate using because it’s absurd that it had to have the stamp of approval in the first place), it is certainly uplifting to see the entire United States covered in a rainbow.

Just twelve years ago…

Less than twelve years ago, I was in middle school when the first state legalized gay marriage. I was young and confused. I didn’t know what I was, or why. And while Massachusetts was paving the way for the rights of all individuals regardless of their sexual orientation, I didn’t understand why it was such a big deal.

Nor did I realize that, twelve years later, millions of people would be celebrating the day on which gay marriage became legal nationwide.

A day in history

Today will undoubtedly be written down in the history books and be remembered for a long time. While the ruling does not affect me as much as it would if I were living in a state that had not previously recognized gay marriage, it nevertheless brought me close to tears this morning. I’m grateful to have spent the day surrounded by people that have shown their enthusiasm and pride.

No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right. The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed. It is so ordered. [Source]

— Robert