Every major movement has a particular generation where progress is gained leaps and bounds. For the civil rights movement, the sixties were the pivotal time for change and the early 2000’s taught the world a whole new way to deal with terroristic threats. 

Now in the second decade of the twenty-first century, our focus seems to be concentrated on the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered and Questioning (LGBTQ) community.  

In the past few weeks, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear several cases regarding states with bans on same-sex marriages. Many in the LGBTQ community celebrated this victory by marrying their long-term partners, including Nevada’s state senator Kelvin Atkinson.

On the other side of the issue, many who oppose same-sex marriages, for religious, spiritual or other reasons, found the court’s refusal to pass judgment a festering wound.  The lack of an answer from the Supreme Court leads to internal arguments in individual’s states’ judicial systems. 

Regardless of your personal thoughts about same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court’s passing on cases of this nature should have a profound effect on you. In the past few decades, the court’s decisions have come down on the side of the power of the federal government the majority of the time.  

Including the decision regarding DOMA in 2013 and the recent decisions given by the court, the Supreme Court has changed this previous pattern and has instead given more power to the states to decide their own laws regarding same-sex marriages. This has allowed for states to both ban same-sex marriages and to legalize them.   

As of this past Friday, seven more states have passed laws opening the doors for same-sex marriages. These states, Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado, and Nevada, have had their cases heard on a state-by-state level where very specific lawsuits brought upon by couples against the state bans are taken on by the court, since the Supreme Court has yet to address the issue of same-sex marriage directly and universally.   

We, as politically involved citizens, are theoretically closer to our state political system. Thus the ball, metaphorically, is in our court to decide which direction we want our state to head towards.  

In the past few weeks, many states, such as South Carolina, have put a halt on issuing same-sex marriage certificates until a judge of either state or federal level assesses the legality of the bans already in place.   

Only time will tell if the supreme court of the people will ever definitively rule on the issue of same-sex marriage, or if it will be settled on a state-by-state basis. Regardless of your stance on same-sex marriage, please contact your state representatives to have your opinions and voice heard.   

Statewide bans on same-sex marriage will be both upheld and struck down. Be a part of the political process and influence the results.