What Barack Obama did on Wednesday, May 9, will reverberate in history as much as when Lyndon B. Johnson called for passage of civil rights laws, and the Supreme Court declared interracial marriage constitutional, in the 1960s.
Just as for African Americans back then, today gay Americans and those who love and support them, see equality, dignity, hope and acceptance, part of what every human being desires as part of being human!
Yes, there were critics then, and even today, of civil rights laws for African Americans and interracial marriage, as there are, today, critics of gay rights and gay marriage.
But in the long run, these critics, past and present, will be part of the “dustbin of history”, who are, and will be, condemned and deplored, and future generations will wonder how we could call ourselves a democracy, and deny equality, dignity, hope, and acceptance to ANY minority!
Just as it did not matter whether all people accepted civil rights and interracial marriage in the 1960s, it does not matter whether they accept gay rights and gay marriage today.
It is not a question of whether something is popular, as no one should have the power to deny equality to anyone else!
This is not something where ordinary people, many of them ignorant and prejudiced, should be voting on other people’s rights.
This is where the Supreme Court should, as with Loving V. Virginia in 1967 mandating Interracial marriage as constitutional, declare gay marriage constitutional, and make it clear that it must be accepted in all states and territories of the United States, no matter what anyone’s personal feelings are regarding the matter!