No union is more profound

News from the United States overnight ensured that I woke up with a smile on my face. The US Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution’s guarantees of due process and equal protection under the law mean that same-sex marriage will now be legal in all 50 states. 

What a wonderful victory for love. 

When my husband and I married nearly two years ago, the moment that made the biggest impact on me was standing in front of all of those people (the people we love and respect most in the world) and telling them, ‘this is the person I choose.’ Just remembering that moment now gives me goosebumps.

You could argue that we didn’t need marriage to do that, but we wanted to be married. 

We yearned to be part of the tradition that had formed our own families for centuries. We wanted to make a public and documented affirmation of the way we feel about each other. We wanted to record our promises to love and support one another in the pages of history. 

For so long, these same rights have been denied to same-sex couples and I can't, for the life of me, understand why. I can't understand why, because I was born female and my husband male, our love is somehow considered more worthy of acknowledgement than that of another couple. When comprehension of that particular fact dawned on me, I cried.

This particular passage from the U.S. Supreme Court ruling eloquently expresses why the right to marry is so important:

Two people become something greater than once they were.

Such a little phrase and yet so true.

Marriage is a choice you make on your wedding day and continue to make each day thereafter. It is an acknowledgement that there will be tough times but that the best way through them is together. It is a resolution to support and love each other even on our most unlikeable days. It is an understanding that we are better together than we are alone and that with love, all things are possible. 

Through these vows, we hope for the best but promise to be there through the worst.

I eagerly await the day when marriage equality is achieved in Australia and all of my friends can, should they choose, experience that same rush I did when Dave and I were declared husband and wife. 

I want them to know the feeling of all-encompassing love and joy that we were surrounded with on our wedding day, from people who were simply happy that we had found each other. 

I want them to be able to proudly say 'my husband' or 'my wife' and have the world acknowledge the strength, love and support that lies within that single term.

United Kingdom Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The ruling overnight has given me heart. There’s still a long road to achieving marriage equality in Australia but I have hope that we’ll get there. 

With love, all things are possible.

It is so ordered.