What a difference a day makes.  After the Supreme Court’s thoroughly indefensible decision on the Voting Rights Act yesterday, my faith that they would come to a logical and favorable decision in either the Defense of Marriage Act or the Proposition 8 cases was wavering.

Color me shocked.  

I woke this morning to an exclamation point-riddled text from my friend David announcing the fall of DOMA.  I hadn’t planned on watching any TV today, but I excitedly hit the on switch to find out the result for Prop 8.

Two for two!

So I’ve spent most of the day waiting for the Castro to explode in celebration for something that hardly seems real yet.  Maybe that’s because I’m not in a relationship that’s just been moved out of Limbo (the Court made us legal, but we still have to find our own partners), but I’ve been happy to see the ecstatic tweets and Facebook posts of my friends whose relationships just became legally valid – some of whom have been together for 30 years and more.

Think of it.  In twelve states at least, none of these people will have to jump through all the ridiculous hoops to prove they’re in a committed relationships to get domestic partnership rights and benefits.  They won’t have to spend huge amounts in legal fees to make sure they have rights of survivorship.  They won’t have to carry special documentation so they can be with a hospitalized partner.  They’ll simply have to flash their marriage licenses– just like everyone else.

Welcome to the 21^st Century.

I know there are a lot of us who would have loved it if the Court had flat out ruled that all laws banning same sex marriage were unconstitutional.  We knew that wouldn’t happen, but it would have been nice.  Yet in a way, I prefer the way the Prop 8 decision was reached.  I literally love that the Court told the anti-gay forces, “Stop whining.  Same-sex marriage does not harm you in any way at all.  You have no standing to even be a party to this case.”  That is incredible!  All they left off was the big fat raspberry.  In a stroke, the argument we’ve been making for God knows how long is now an official part of United States jurisprudence.

The rest really is only a matter of time.  The lawsuits in the Neanderthal states will start soon and in each case the plaintiffs will be able to point to the Supreme Court, which ruled that our relationships cause no harm to anyone.  There’ll still be a lot of wingeing and moaning, I’m sure.  The forces of ignorance never go down quietly, but I’m confident they will go down and I will laugh every time it happens.  On the bright side, maybe this will give Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck massive aneurysms.

I’ll think about all of that tomorrow.  Tonight I’m going to go down to the Castro because I’m lucky enough to be living in one of the main centers of gay life as this is happening.  It’d be foolish to sit six blocks away from history and not be a part of it – especially when it’s going to be so colorful.

I’m thinking the rest of Pride Month is going to be just a little bit gayer now.