I know we will soon have true marriage equality.
There are many issues I'm passionate about.
The environment. Chronic disease. Ludicrous incarceration rates. Money in politics. Mass shootings. The future of public education. A culture of sexual violence.
All of these issues are tough, the road is long and the outcome uncertain. Many have been fought over since the founding of our nation.
Some seem like disgraceful problems we may face for generations to come, with the notable exception of the environment. Keep ignoring that, and we'll kill ourselves off before too long -- then we won't have to worry about any of the others.
If there are solutions to these issues, they are complicated. Painful.
But then there is one issue that's very different: marriage equality.
I know how this one is going to end up. The solution is simple -- let a consenting adult marry another consenting adult. The fight to get to this point has been painful, but that is starting to end. I hate to discount religious convictions, but there's no pain in this solution, only love.
Maybe that's why setbacks like Judge Crabb's stay on her injunction order sting so much.
Last week was beautiful, a chance to peek into that not-so-distant future and celebrate what we will soon take for granted. Whether it was friends, former co-workers, or random people I've never met who were featured in the media, it still drove me to tears to read their stories. They've waited so many years just to have a basic right.
It is maddening to think that right could be invalidated or deferred by a court order, this fight should be over. It is inevitable, the tide has turned. Appeals, request for stays -- all they do is delay.
Everyone in Wisconsin won a big victory, even it was snatched away for the time being. It's a little sad it takes the courts to undo our state's desecration of the 14th Amendment. But it was the celebrations that followed, when the Dane County Clerk's office had to turn volunteers away, and all the love shared across the state -- that was the victory we earned.
For any other issue I'm passionate about, that'd be enough. I'd be satisfied that we moved the ball forward and made some real progress.
This is different. I can see the end zone on this one. I know we will soon have true marriage equality -- secure, protected rights in Wisconsin and the rest of the nation. Hell, let's go for the entire planet.
When that day comes, the celebration is going to make last week look like a pre-party.
Until then, those who were married, those who wait to be married, and all of their allies must keep pushing for equality.
