A Historic Day

I wept with joy as I read the many tweets and Facebook posts about what D. Bruce Hanes did yesterday in Montgomery County, PA.  But the one that really got me going was the interview on the Rachel Maddow Show that a friend posted there.  Mr. Hanes granted marriage licenses for five same-sex marriage in despite of Pennsylvania's ban on Gay Marriage. My tears were not only for the historic event this was, but for the freedom that the county I live in is allowing everyone who lives here.

Same-sex marriage is a civil rights issue plain and simple.  It is right for a couple in a committed relationship to be able to have that relationship recognized by the law like anyone else's.  The right to allow survivor benefits, the right to provide medical decisions for each other, the right to raise a family, among others. It is just unthinkable to me that those couples would not be allowed those rights simply because they are the same sex.

I know this incidence is not going to be a one day story.  As I write this one of my good friends is planning his own wedding.  He and his partner have been together for 28 years and they did have a religious commitment ceremony several years ago.  He told me that when they stand before their minister and recite their vows on the steps of the county courthouse that it is an act of civil disobedience more than anything else. But I think it is so much more and I will weep tears of joy again as I witness their legal union.