Decision makes marriage equality the law of the land across the nation.

by Brian Leubitz

You can find many words on the marriage decision plastered all over the interwebs. But I wanted to point out the closing of Justice Kennedy’s decision in the 5-4 Obergefell decision.

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. (Obergefell v Hodges)

As many have stated, marriage equality isn’t the end of the fight for LGBT rights or civil rights more broadly, there isn’t such thing as the end of that fight. We’ve seen too much over the past weeks and months to think that is the case. Even within the LGBT community, there are a litany of lines that are arbitrarily drawn, yet the results are all too real.

Yet, for one day, love wins. And that makes this a good day. And for my fellow San Franciscans, what a happy #SFPride this will be.