Yesterday was an effin’ big day for Oregon: A judge effectively struck down a constitutional amendment that limited marriage to heterosexual people. As of yesterday at noon, same-sex couples can now have their union recognized by the state and enjoy the rights that come along with marriage.
I am so happy and so relieved.
I’m thrilled for my friends who can now marry in the state (including some who wasted no time and got re-hitched yesterday in Eugene!). I was in tears over the newlywed strangers embracing after brief and public ceremonies.
Finally, their expressions of joy said.
Finally.
I am proud that my daughter will grow up in a state that no longer condones and enforces marriage inequality. I imagine that she will look back on this fight and be just as confused and frustrated as my generation is when we consider laws against interracial marriage.
My daughter will be able to marry the person whom she loves, man or woman. I’m grateful that this is one less injustice she’ll have to rail against.
As US District Judge Michael McShane, the judge who overturned the amendment, said yesterday,
“Let us look less to the sky to see what might fall; rather, let us look to each other … and rise.”
My heart is soaring, and I can feel us all rising together.
