American Civil Liberties Union

Yesterday, Minnesota became the 12th state in the country to approve a law allowing same-sex couples to marry. This comes on the heels of Rhode Island and Delaware approving freedom to marry laws in the last two weeks, and historic victories at the ballot box in Maine, Maryland, and Washington last November. Momentum is building across the country, and Illinois is poised to become the fourth state this month to affirm the dignity of all committed couples.

I'm writing from DC, where "Team Edie" has spent the last few days in intense preparations for today's Supreme Court oral arguments in Edie Windsor's challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act.

Edie's case presents a straightforward question of equality: Is it fair for the federal government to pretend that her marriage to Thea Spyer, with whom she shared her life for 44 years, never happened? That's what DOMA requires the federal government to do – treat the approximately 130,000 married same-sex couples in the United States as unmarried for purposes of the 1,100 different federal programs where being married makes a difference – from family medical leave, to social security survivor benefits, to veterans' benefits. The Court's answer to that question will determine whether DOMA falls.

It seems like every time you turn around these days, someone is announcing new support for the freedom to marry, which is the result of years of groundwork that the ACLU and other organizations have laid to get us to this incredible place.

Yesterday in New Mexico, we filed a new state court lawsuit seeking the freedom to marry for same-sex couples. We have partnered with the National Center for Lesbian Rights for the litigation, and both organizations have also joined forces with Equality New Mexico and Freedom to Marry on a related public education campaign to help New Mexicans show their neighbors why the freedom to marry is so important. We're riding a wave of enthusiasm in New Mexico, as the Mayor and City Council in Santa Fe announced earlier this week that there's good reason to believe that state law already allows same-sex couples to marry. We think that's right, but know that we're going to need guidance from the courts to get a final answer, so we've filed this case both to present the issue to the courts and to illustrate why denying the freedom to marry is so unfair.

What marriage equality has meant to me and my family has changed greatly over our lives. When my parents were born, in the mid-1950s, the idea of ever having an open, public discussion of sexual orientation seemed impossible, and marriage for gay and lesbian couples wasn't even remotely imaginable. Now, in my lifetime and theirs, my parents have gotten married, and it is entirely possible that their marriage will be recognized by our government in the same way that everyone else's is. It's both exciting and dramatic, and I never know whether I believe it will happen.