quote:
Two gay Apache helicopter pilots have married in what is believed to be the first active-duty same-sex wedding at West Point military academy.

Daniel Hall, 30 and Vincent Franchino, 26, were married on Saturday 13 January, according to the New York Times. ?
The two captains, who are stationed at Fort Bliss in Texas married in front of 150 family and friends.

“You could tell that there was this chemistry, this unspoken communication between them,” said Capt. Owen Waits, a close friend to both who was a senior cadet at that time and later married Captain Hall’s sister, Lauren.

“It was kind of strange because you knew that there was this whole aspect of their feelings and personalities that were being suppressed,” Captain Waits said. “But that’s just the way it was.”

But in September 2011, it was that way no longer. Congress repealed “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and Captains Hall and Franchino were soon celebrating their new sense of freedom.

LINK

Reading this story has me reflecting on how far this country has come , especially between the years 2010 to 2017. Not only do these guys (and many others) not have to hide who they are to serve the country they love, they can be married and not treated as "not worthy" or "second class citizens" as gays wanting to marry were just a few short years ago. Although activism goes back decades , it did not come to the forefront until the early 2000's and everything step falling perfectly in place (with no room for error) in the above years.

IT CANNOT STATED ENOUGH HOW MUCH PRESIDENT OBAMA'S (and the DEMOCRATIC PARTY) EFFORT, GUIDANCE AND LEADERSHIP CONTRIBUTED TO ALL THIS BECOMING A REALITY

Step 1. Revoke DADT

In December of 2010 Obama guided the bill to abolish DADT through Congress knowing it was the ONLY chance as the Democrats would not have control in January. He would have attempted in the later years but it would have never passed with Republican control and it would still be illegal to this day.
It seems almost unbelievable now that open gays were banned from the military just a little over five year ago!

STEP 2 Create state and national momentum for the inevitable journey to the SCOTUS

In May of 2012, President Obama took enormous political risk and became the first President in American history to publicly support same-sex marriage. I mean, we all knew he was our friend, and most of knew why he hadn't publicly done this earlier. Momentum had to keep going forward slowly and steady, with no room for error. I remember in 2012 worrying he had done this too soon and several liberals commented on this board their same fears.

Him taking that risk, in conjunction with the New York Assembly legalizing the year , provided the momentum for the ballot wins in Maryland, Maine, Minnesota,and Washington state. To see that kind of sea change is stunning when just four years prior Prop 8 passed in California. Those ballot wins then pushed RI, OR, DE, and IL to legislatively legalize.

This was the catalyst for the Western state bans and others being struck down by Circuit Courts all over the country leading to the SCOTUS and the decision we have today.

There is NO doubt the SCOTUS was watching this closely prior to the Obergefell decision and had some influence on their decision that changed the lives of so many.

quote:
Much as Americans like to imagine judges, particularly Supreme Court justices, as ahistorical applicators of a timeless code, the court is inevitably influenced by the world around it. As social mores have evolved, the justices’ consensus has too, on issues ranging from cruel and unusual punishment to segregation. “What the Constitution is understood to encompass has changed over time in ways that are dramatic, sweeping, and often permanent,” the New York University School of Law professor Barry Friedman writes in his book on this phenomenon, The Will of the People. “Although these changes are reflected in judicial decisions, they are rarely initiated there.”

Some justices, particularly the court’s liberal ones, are frank about the court’s inevitable evolution alongside the public consensus. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has publicly fretted that the court’s decision to legalize abortion in Roe v. Wade came before America was ready for such a step, and that it helped unleash an anti-abortion backlash that continues today.

LINK

I know many people hate Obama. Some of their disagreements may be valid, I don't think many are. Obama stood up for some of the "others" though and him doing that gave us possibly our only chance at obtaining equality in my lifetime. Sure, even in this first year in the reign of Trump, we would have won because all Gorsuch did was replace Scalia. There is no doubt though, another Heritage Foundation picked judge , and no one in my generation would live long enough to see this happen.

It's almost like God or some higher power knew what dark was coming and brought some light in before it was too late. It's almost not real when seeing who some judicial nominees are that being placed. Some aren't very far from the Roy Moores of the World.

Thank you President Obama for your compassion for all of the "others" in this country. Thank you for not scaring people of and lying to people about "the others" as your successor has done. I'm sure these guys are some of your biggest fans.

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