Words from a 2006 article written by blogger Andrew Sullivan reach out from the past to tell us what the Supreme Court ruling in favor of marriage equality really means for future gays and lesbians:
A gay child born today will grow up knowing that, in many parts of the world and in…the United States, gay couples can get married just as their parents did. From the very beginning of their gay lives, in other words, they will have internalized a sense of normality, of human potential, of self-worth—something that my generation never had and that previous generations would have found unimaginable. That shift in consciousness is as profound as it is irreversible.
The article form which the above quote comes was really a commentary on the shifting changes to gay culture and identity, but I thought the above quote, though written nearly a decade before the Supreme Court’s decision, was the most accurate summation of impact of marriage equality.