"there is no denying that something historic has just happened"

History in Real Time
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: March 27, 2013


Witnessing a historic moment is such an odd and exhilarating thing. It is hard to register the full scope of it because you are chest deep in it.

That is how I feel about the gay-marriage arguments made before the Supreme Court on Tuesday and Wednesday.

However the court rules on California’s Proposition 8 and the federal government’s Defense of Marriage Act, there is no denying that something historic has just happened: an aggrieved group has taken a stand and given voice once again to the American — and indeed Democratic — ideals of justice and fairness and freedom.

On Prop 8, the justices seemed wary of overreaching, but on DOMA, most of the justices seemed to signal an unease or even all-out contempt for the law. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg put it, DOMA creates two, unequal categories of marriage: “the full marriage, and then this sort of skim milk marriage.”

And regardless of the final ruling, the tables on this issue have already turned. Democratic lawmakers are jumping over one another to get to a microphone and declare their support for same-sex marriage, and conservatives appear resigned to — or possibly overcome by — the change.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/opinion/blow-history-in-real-times.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0