Love Wins

What a week for the United States of America. Of all the horrible and shocking news that we’ve received lately, it is moments like today that really feel like progress. I don’t think I’ve ever refreshed Facebook so many times to see all the happy posts of my friends and coworkers.

First of all, congratulations to every member of the LGBT community on such a historic win! While there is still progress to be made, we can celebrate the fact that couples and families across the nation can now be fully protected under the law in any state that they reside in. Our country has undergone so much turmoil in the battle for equality since its inception. But what a time to be alive!

I grew up in a very conservative part of the nation – south Texas to be exact. For years I had struggled with my sexuality. When I went off to college in rural west Texas, I would come face to face with a choice: be true to myself and live in that truth as a gay man or suppress my feelings and go along with the majority. I couldn’t even marry someone if I met them, right? I thought for so long that choosing to hide my true self would be the easier choice to make. This thought, and many others, are what held me in the metaphorical closet for so long.

Denying who you are leads to self-hatred, and hate is the enemy. It is cruel. It is unjust. It kills the human spirit.  It has held this nation back for so long, and slowly (ever so slowly) we are peeling away those layers of hatred. Marriage equality isn’t just for those adults who choose to get married; it is for those children who haven’t yet discovered who they are. It is for those children growing up in a family with two moms or two dads who do not feel different, but are treated as “other” simply because their family isn’t “traditional.” It is for those of us who have felt like we need to hide who we are because our nation doesn’t see us as equal.

Here is a snippet from the last paragraph of the final opinion of the court:

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.

For Northwest Surrogacy Center, this epic decision upholds what we’ve always believed: that all couples should have the right to a family. It is an honor to serve our families and help them realize the love that a family can bring. Love is what holds our society together. So today, we celebrate with families of all types, but especially with our LGBT families. And today, I celebrate my truth.

Love Wins.

It is so ordered.