Dignity

When the Supreme Court in the US ruled two years ago that the Federal Government could not ignore us as a couple, I broke down in tears. We started, what has become, a rather long process of moving to the US. Now, the Supreme Court has said that it is so important that not only should it be recognised by the Federal Government, but that State Governments cannot abridge this individual freedom under the law. It finally brings universal dignity in the US to same-gendered marriage.

In 2006, I was essentially forced to choose my country of birth over my husband. Even then, it was only December 2005 when that had become a possibility in his country of birth and we had been together since 2000. We have been very very lucky, as we both have been highly successful in our professional careers which opened up a level of freedom.

As a couple, we have never wanted anything more than the ability to lead our lives as we see fit without constraint by the Government upon us. We had that when the UK offered us Civil Partnerships and we took advantage of that. When the UK offered marriages, we only took advantage of that because of the benefit of making immigration to the US easier. Because our target location in the US was a State that recognised same-gendered marriages, we didn’t specifically worry about the outcome of this case before the Supreme Court, but it having arrived underlined that we would have been in a situation that we would have been included in some US States, but excluded in others, which would have limited our liberties in the US.

While there were a few people who were disappointed yesterday, people who really shouldn’t be meddling in other peoples affairs, the overall response is allowing me to start to fall in love again with my homeland.