Marriage equality. In the United States. Now.

What a historic day! Future generations will never know that there was once “marriage” and “same-sex marriage.” We can now just call it “marriage”!

With one decision, the United States Supreme Court “united” all of the states with this conclusion: “The Fourteenth Amendment [of the United States Constitution] requires a State to license a mar­riage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawful­ly licensed and performed out-of-State.” Obergefell v. Hodges.

No longer will gay marriage be recognized in some states and ignored in others. No longer will married same-sex couples be denied the recognition and benefits of marriage based upon the state in which they reside.

The last paragraph of the Supreme Court’s decision is indeed profound:

“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.” Justice Kennedy, Obergefell v. Hodges.

On June 26, 2015, love did indeed conquer hate.