[Connecticut Governor’s residence displays the Pride Flag after the ruling]

Nick Kapoor, Democratic Town Committee Chair of Monroe, Connecticut has provided us with this essay on what the Supreme Court’s ruling means.

This week, the Supreme Court of the United States said that gay and lesbian couples have the same federal rights as heterosexual couples.

This week, the Supreme Court of the United States paved the way for marriage equality in California where it has been stuck in limbo for several years.  In the case of Baker v. Nelson in 1972 the Supreme Court did not rule on same sex marriage due to “no substantial federal question,” in Bowers v. Hardwick in 1986 allowed sodomy laws to remain as crimes until the Lawrence v. Texas decision on June 26, 2003 that overruled Bowers, and today, June 26, 2013, the Supreme Court invalidated Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act in US v. Windsor giving LGBT Californians the right to marry.  The institution of the Supreme Court has come a long way and I foresee future victories for the LGBT community on the horizon.

We have come leaps and bounds as a country with regard to same sex marriage and same sex rights.

President Obama is the first sitting president to endorse same sex marriage with the Democratic Party being the first major political party to adopt support for same sex marriage, same sex adoption, and full rights to members of the LGBT community in their 2012 platform.  The Democratic Party is one of inclusiveness.  Our organization recognizes that love is love no matter who you share it with.  The Democratic Party recognizes that the definition of family can include two men or two women (with or without children) and that family can be a successfully functioning unit of society.  The Democratic Party realizes that standing up for equality for the LGBT community is just the right thing to do, plain and simple.  I am proud to be a local elected official and local Chair of a party that stands up for my rights and myself as a member of the LGBT community.  I am proud to be a Democrat.

Now, we continue the fight for equality in marriage, in the workplace, in our schools, and even in public where no one, anywhere in America, should be afraid to hold the hand of their partner whether it be a man or a woman.

 The LGBT movement is the civil rights issue of this generation and it has covered more ground in quicker time than any other civil rights issue in the history of our nation. But our work is not done.  We must continue to fight to make ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ a reality in our country that was founded and thrives on its display of individual civil liberties. We must continue to fight for equality in every state of our country.  We must continue to fight to elect representatives – at all levels of government – that believe in the ideals of equality in every part of our great nation.  We must continue to fight until we have won and that we will do.

Nicholas Kapoor