Given the national conversation taking place this week, it is worth noting that, borne of the carnage of the Civil War came three great Amendments to our Constitution, that have fundamentally shaped our perception of our rights as Americans ever since. Here is the critically relevant passage from the Fourteenth Amendment:
“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
While the cynic in me does despair of the fact that it took our country so long to apply such a common sense reading of the law, I am nonetheless ecstatic that, 46 years after Stonewall, we are finally applying this text to LGBT people.
The founding documents to our country invoke “We the people,” and claim “all men are created equal.” The history of our nation can be distilled to one struggle: what exactly is meant by those words?
While many Americans in 1789 believed that these words only applied to white, Christian, straight men, there has been a constant push towards a more inclusive understanding of those words. What we now strive towards is the notion that not just rights, but equality, respect, and dignity must be granted to every human being without condition.
Today, we got one step closer.