What The Recent Supreme Court Decisions Mean For Me?

In case you were hiding under a rock in Siberia, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on two cases regarding same-gender marriage today.

The highest Court in the nation declared:

• Article III of the Defense of Marriage Act—a statute passed by Congress in 1996 that, specifically for federal benefit purposes, defined marriage as between one man and one woman—is unconstitutional.

• The private sponsors defending California’s Proposition 8—a 2008 ballot initiative that banned the state from issuing marriage licenses to same-gender couples—did not have legal grounds to represent the state as private parties appealing the state’s position; thereby returning the case to its Ninth District Court of Appeal’s decision as Proposition 8 being unconstitutional.

So what does all of this mean for me? Strictly speaking, I am currently neither in a same-gender marriage nor am I a legal resident of the state of California. So how exactly do I have any stake in either of these rulings?

[First of all, it is important to recognize what the Court’s decision on Proposition 8 actually means. Strictly speaking, the Court decided not to consider the case—basically, they rejected the appeal. This means that the Court DID NOT deliberate, nor made a final decision on, the Constitutionality of same-gender marriage. INSTEAD, the Court reaffirmed its position that no private party is allowed to represent the state before the Court—which of course makes it particularly curious why they even heard oral arguments in the first place….]

For me, these decisions give me a bright hope for the future. What these decisions say is that whenever I do get married to the man I love and obtain a marriage license from the state (or Washington DC) we live in, the federal government will now consider us just like any other couple.

Yep, before today, that was not the case. Before today, such a document would not have kept the federal government from denying me spousal status for each of its 1,138-ish rights and benefits for U.S. Citizens.

But after today, all of that has changed—as long as I live in a state that recognizes same-gender marriages.

With these decisions in place, my (future) husband and I can apply for federal income tax together. We can apply for social security together. And if we buy a house together, we can apply for federal property tax together. If either one of us gets federal heath care with our occupation, the other will be allowed to be included on it as well. If one of us is seriously ill, no hospital can keep us from having family visitation hours. And if one of us dies, the other can be declared as the heir and rightful property owner.

Again, all of these are things that are already guaranteed by the federal government to anyone in an opposite-gendered marriage—and are things that have been routinely denied to lawfully married same-gendered couples for years under DOMA.

And in case you have not realized it yet, these Supreme Court decisions have NOTHING to do with what God or the church says is right or wrong; because this has nothing to do with God or with the church.

Rather, this has EVERYTHING to do with the legal implications of my everyday life as a legal citizen living in the United States of America in 2013. This has everything to do with how I plan to live my life in the future: where I will live, what job I will take, what insurance I will have, etc.

No, this may not affect me today, but believe me: someday it will. And for that, I say: Thank you to Supreme Court of the United States!