Not one, but two states have gained marriage equality this week, as Pennsylvania today joined Oregon. And lest anyone feel that U.S. District Court Judge Michael McShane’s ruling in the Oregon case was influenced by the fact that he is a gay dad, consider that straight U.S. District Court Judge John E. Jones III, who ruled in Pennsylvania, was appointed by President George W. Bush and backed by anti-LGBT Senator Rick Santorum (R).
Jones wrote, in part:
The issue we resolve today is a divisive one. Some of our citizens are made deeply uncomfortable by the notion of same-sex marriage. However, that same-sex marriage causes discomfort in some does not make its prohibition constitutional. Nor can past tradition trump the bedrock constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection. Were that not so, ours would still be a racially segregated nation according to the now rightfully discarded doctrine of “separate but equal.” In the sixty years since Brown [Brown v. Board of Education] was decided, “separate” has thankfully faded into history, and only “equal” remains. Similarly, in future generations the label same-sex marriage will be abandoned, to be replaced simply by marriage.
We are a better people that what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history.
Check out Freedom to Marry’s page about the win, with profiles of all the plaintiffs, including named plaintiffs — and moms! — Deb and Susan Whitewood.