Though the political impact on the November presidential
election is yet to be clarified, Barack Obama’s statement
Wednesday in support of same-sex marriage for gay couples
clearly puts him on the right side of history. Whatever reason
brought him to this moment, Obama, the nation’s first black
president, may now become equally known as a symbolic champion
for the Constitution’s 14th amendment, which affirms equal
rights under the law for all Americans. His is a position that
inevitably will be recognized one day by the U.S. Supreme Court
as the law of the land. At least half of all Americans, polls
confirm, already believe the right to same-sex marriage should
be accorded to all citizens to guarantee equal access under the
law to the storehouse of legal rights conveyed by marriage —
whether it be property rights, spousal Social Security benefits,
alimony or access to an ICU ward to care for a committed partner
or child. Churches can make their own rules for marriage as a
matter of their religious rights and