Happy National Coming Out Day!

Today, as people march in Washington D.C. and all over the country in an effort to raise awareness of the inequality same sex couples face in the U.S. today. From marriage to adoption to health care to end-of-life decision making to taxes, marriage for the few is not equality. As a bisexual woman I recognize the benefits I reap because I happen to have married a man. At the same time, I also know that was not necessarily what was going to happen, and I think about that other path I could have taken, one where I would be a less than equal citizen.

As a lawyer, I recognize the flexibility and ingenuity created in a federal system that accommodates fifty state living laboratories to experiment with different legal solutions to legal problems. But at the end of the day, we are one country, and that requires one solution to the problem of marriage equality. The Commerce Clause demands that we recognize the legal binding contracts entered into from one state jurisdiction to another. Marriage should be no different.

In the spirit of the day, please check out the video below. Ostensibly about greeting cards, which I also collect, there is a lovely and emotional moment at the end of the video that talks about the embrace of love and faith simultaneously. May we all move toward such a model.