WARNING: POLITICAL JOURNAL AHEAD!! If you don't want to read, click your back button!

RE: Marriage equality

Yesterday was a very significant step forward for Progressivism.

You have surely heard by now, but a Federal Appeals Judge in Utah by the name of Robert Shelby has declared Utah's Amendment 3, an amendment served to "protect the sanctity of traditional marriage", unconstitutional. In his opinion, Judge Shelby stated that “The Constitution protects the Plaintiffs’ fundamental rights, which include the right to marry and the right to have that marriage recognized by their government.” He went on to say that the Constitution “protects the choice of one’s partner for all citizens, regardless of sexual identity.”

The one line that resonated with me the most is the argument for Marriage Equality that I had held all along. Long had I believed that the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution provided the legal basis for overturning marriage discrimination law. Those who rally against equality would tell you that it is a matter of States Rights. That it is indeed up to the individual States to decide how they wish to define marriage. However, Shelby has clarified that they are, in fact, wrong. That “the Fourteenth Amendment requires that individual rights take precedence over states’ rights where these two interests are in conflict”.

And perhaps the biggest bitch slapping Shelby could serve came at the expense of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who so famously wrote in Lawrence vs. Texas that “[t]oday’s opinion dismantles the structure of constitutional law that has permitted a distinction to be made between heterosexual and homosexual unions, insofar as formal recognition in marriage is concerned.” And Judge Shelby said that he was right. Today's opinion does in fact dismantle the structure of constitutional law that permitted a distinction to be made between hetero and homosexual unions. For all the right reasons.

It is so glorious to see those who would not want change, it is glorious to see their own words used against them. As noted in the movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, "people can be afraid of change." Well I am here to ask "...why?" Why must we fear change? Change is the only constant in our universe. Change is the only thing that is ever guaranteed. Change is what helps us realize our mistakes and to learn from them. Change helps us to become better people. Change allows us to evolve. We don't have to fear change, we should embrace it! For it embraces us and tells us what we did right, as well as what we did wrong.

I implore you to heed my words today, ladies and gentlemen. Heed them today and heed them tomorrow. Heed them for the rest of your life.

WARNING: THIS WAS A POLITICAL JOURNAL! I am not responsible if you read something you do not like.