The day DOMA died
June 27, 2013Love is Love - A Photo Blog Celebrating SCOTUS’s results in West Hollywood with AFER.
Yesterday the Supreme Court of the United States took steps toward marriage equality in our country. Part of DOMA was struck down, making way for same sex couples who have been married to have the same federal benefits as anyone else who is married. SCOTUS also ruled that the defendants appealing the overturn of Prop 8 had no standing to do so.
Same sex couples in the State of California will be getting married very soon. I grew up in a home that taught me we are all equal no matter who love, what we look like, or where we come from. I’m grateful for my parents being the kind of people who see simply other people before them.
I went over to West Hollywood with my camera and some friends from the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles to hear from the American Foundation for Equal Rights team that was fresh off the plane from Washington D.C.
Among others board member Academy Award winning director Dustin Lance Black, board member and President of the Human Rights Campaign Chad Griffin, Executive Director Adam Umhoefer, Lawyers Ted Olson and Daavid Boies, and plaintifs Jeff Zarrillo, Pail Katami, Kris Perry, and Sandy Stier were in attendance alongside Los Angeles Mayor Antonia Villaraigosa.
It was a beautiful day and made me proud to be a resident of the State of California for the last decade. This is a huge step forward, and something to celebrate but the work doesn’t stop here. There are still 37 states that don’t recognize same sex marriage. Who think someone is less than simply because of who they were born as. It is time for that to change.
