Back in 2008 when I was working to defeat Proposition 8 on the California Ballot, we all talked about gay marriage. It didn’t seem any big deal at the time and not for many years afterward. We were fighting for our gay citizens to have the right to marry so gay marriage seemed to be what we were fighting for.
I never thought much about it. Then a couple of years ago I heard Evan Wolfson speak at the PFLAG National Convention. Evan Wolfson is an attorney and gay rights advocate. He is the founder and president of Freedom to Marry, a non-profit that was at the forefront of the rights of same-sex couples to marry.
After hearing him speak, I realized that it isn’t gay marriage at all. It’s just marriage. We were fighting for the rights of all citizens to marry the person of their choosing, whether of the same sex or opposite sex. What we were fighting for was equality – marriage equality.
And we won. My son married his husband. Many of our children have since married the man or woman they couldn’t before marriage equality became the law of the land. So stop calling it gay marriage. Call it what it is – marriage and celebrate that we have marriage equality today.
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