Freedom to Marry

On Saturday, Obama has the opportunity -- and I believe the obligation -- to speak in moral as well as concrete terms about non-gay people's stake in ending the exclusion and discrimination gay people endure.

We now have an American president for the first time publicly acknowledging his support for same sex-marriage, which even a few short years ago would have been unthinkable.

For those of us in committed relationships seeking legal recognition, it's an emotionally draining, two-steps-forward, one-step-back process, state by state, country by country.

The National Organization "for" Marriage and its backers are funneling a new ad into states such as Maine, New Jersey, and New York, whose legislatures are all weighing the freedom to marry.

Unlike right-wing opponents of equality, who denounce and seek to punish courts for doing their job, I criticize only when they flinch or fail to do it.

The Windy City Times discovered two candidate surveys conducted in 1996, in which Obama wrote "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages."

If Macy's can speak out for equality for all, so can we. And if Gov. Schwarzenegger can do his part to respect and uphold the epic gain in California, so must we.

In asserting the freedom to marry, the court not only did the right thing, it did its job -- upholding the Constitution against laws that fell short of constitutional requirements.