Yesterday in California another barrier in the human and civil rights of Americans came tumbling down. In the annals of American history no struggle for the rights of oppressed people rivals the violence that gay people have experienced as a result of the phobia of prejudiced people. The struggle remains vibrant and thriving in the hatred and fear of the ruling minority of people who ban the free expression of love of people.

Nothing is more related to the expanded democratic conversation than the rights of gay people to be equal members in the eyes of the civil authority. We must recognize that when hatred exists against an ethnic minority, against a person who speaks another language, against a person who practices another faith, against women and children who are trafficked, against the abuse and subjugation of women and abuse of children, against the poor, against people who have served in the jails and prisons and who are denied their inalienable rights, that these abhorrent, aberrations of justice and equality impact everyone of our citizens.

The pressure must be raised to live in a world where a woman can decide what it done with her life, and where a child has opportunity to thrive. We must be vigilant against the tyranny of slandering human beings in their right to live with dignity and together as partners.

When Sheila Schroeder and Kate Burns went before the civil authority to plea for their case as a couple they were exercising their constitutional rights as equal partners. They stood together and were counted as the countless gay couples throughout the country are recognized as living on a par with the rest of the world.