The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled same-sex couples throughout the country must be allowed to marry. The finding recognizes a universal right to marriage under the Fourteenth Amendment.
For the second time in as many days, President Barack Obama was on television Friday to praise the work of the US Supreme Court. He says progress in efforts like same-sex marriage is often slow and piecemeal.
“And then sometimes there are days like this,” Obama said, “when that slow steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt.”
And at least in Florida’s capital city his choice of metaphor was surprisingly apropos. Standing beneath an overhang at the state Capitol, with rain is pouring down, thunder repeatedly interrupted former Equality Florida board member Jim Van Riper.
But whatever the weather, it isn’t dampening Van Riper’s spirit.
“It’s a historic day,” Van Riper says. “I think we all need to take a step back and recognize that we live in a great country and we have the opportunity to live freely and that takes respect and recognition that we’re all equal and that’s what’s important.”
And he says this was already an important day for him. He first met his husband 16 years ago—on June 26.
But George Brophy is a bit more circumspect. He’s a friend of Van Riper’s—they and their partners actually got married at the same time in a ceremony the day it became legal to do so in Florida. Brophy says the ruling is something to celebrate, but he says there’s still work to do.
“You could marry your same sex partner, go on a honeymoon and be fired from your job on Monday,” Brophy says. “So it’s not over, so, I guess that’s the part that I would want to underline and make sure people remember.”
Rep. David Richardson (D-Miami Beach), an openly gay state lawmaker, agrees.
“A lot of the local communities have passed ordinances, including Miami-Dade County, that protect the LGBT community from termination based on sexual orientation or gender identity,” Richardson says. “But in many places in the state of Florida you can be fired for simply being gay, and we really need to work on that.”
Meanwhile opponents of gay marriage are also saying the Supreme Court ruling isn’t the end of the road.
“Well I think the big thing now is to protect religious liberty because they’ve created a new right,” Stemberger says. “And when you create a new right out of thin air that’s not already enumerated in the Constitution you have to ask yourself how’s this going to going to affect religious liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of association, and so I think conscience clauses in legislative bodies—we need to figure out ways to protect Christians, and Jewish people and even Muslims.”
Writing for the majority Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy says, “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family.”
He disputes the argument that same sex couples demean the institution of marriage simply by taking part, instead concluding, “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.”
