I am not exactly sure that I can explain how it felt to be at the capitol in St. Paul, MN on the day Minnesota legislators cleared the final hurdle and the senators voted to legalize same-sex marriage.

With victories in Delaware, Rhode Island and Minnesota, the number of states with marriage equality has increased by three in just the last few weeks. Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon and even Nevada are on the horizon, but that's when our momentum may start slowing down.

May we look back 20 years from now and have the joy of remembering that the Supreme Court, instead of leaving us to live in 50 different Americas while the justices themselves lived in one America, found in its wisdom and strength that equal protection of the law is more than just words.

Last week, as we were preparing to hit "send" on our income tax returns, we thought that maybe, just maybe, this year will be the last that legally married lesbian and gay couples will have to lie to the federal government about the nature of their relationships and file their taxes as single people.

Edie Windsor's refusal to pay a tax from which a straight person would have been exempt seems stirringly similar to Rosa Parks' refusal to get out of a seat in which a white person would have been able to stay. When I'm a very old gay man, I'll be able to look back and say, "It all started with Edie, and I was there."

Well, folks, as we settle into the long lull between the arguments to the Supreme Court on Prop 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act and the expected decision in late June, allow me to present the First-Ever Ennead Awards.

I was raised by two women and I am fine, perhaps even better for it, as I had the unique advantage of learning how to be a man from women, and how to be a man who loves women in a world of so much female-oriented hatred.

The day after the U.S. Supreme Court heard two days of historic arguments over marriage equality, I talked with Lee Swislow, Executive Director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), which coordinated the amicus briefs and the party briefs in United States v. Windsor.

The day that gay marriage was legalized in New York, our cell phones came alive. Friends and loved ones wanted to know if Scott and I had set the date. Many also requested to be apprised of their titles and roles at the wedding. There was only one problem with all of that -- we currently have no plans to get married.

Ms. Powell was not permitted to attend her wife's burial. "I'm at the laundromat watching," she messaged to her friends from across the street of the Palestine Baptist Church Cemetery while her partner was laid to rest.

Equality cannot and should never wait for majority support, but even more importantly, laws that thwart equal treatment under the law and thus create pain in the minds and hearts of those against whom they discriminate actively harm our nation every day they're on the books.

How dare we who are heterosexual presume to control and limit LGBT people's lives? How dare we suffer the conceit that being gay is mutable and can or should be changed by therapy?

A conservative radio host and the president of the Southern Baptist Convention suggested recently that support of same-sex marriage and gay rights cou...

Equality embodies our humanity, and our progress as a nation. But for those who prefer their rationale more hard-nosed: Human capital -- our children -- is the engine of our economy. And they need support from consistent, loving, healthy adults, no matter their sexual orientation.

Aside from the economic, legal and social benefits of gay marriage, let's do whatever we can in this country to give marriage itself a fighting chance.