As I write this, I was reminiscing just two days prior about the incredible moment just three years ago when the US Supreme Court decided, in the case Obergefell v. Hodges, that marriage equality was the law of the land.  I was attending the UUA’s General Assembly in Portland when that was announced, and I joined in the euphoric celebration that day, along with thousands of others, including many who had found ways to build families with the ones they love in spite of our heretofore discriminatory marriage laws.  It was an incredible moment, but not only a moment – it was a turning point in how our nation views marriage and family and the dignity of people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, or Questioning.  No change happens overnight, of course, which is as true in these regards as anywhere, yet I recalled how only a few years prior to that court case the very idea of people legally marrying others of the same gender was seen as preposterous by the vast majority of Americans.  And looking back on it now, we can clearly see the truth of Martin Luther King’s famous dictum, that the moral arc of the universe is long, but does indeed bend toward justice.  The cultural changes that Obergefell either initiated, facilitated, reflected, or forced (depending on your point of view) are real and lasting, and represent an historic bend toward justice for this country.  continue reading