The times, they are a-changin’

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.

It’s been nearly a week since Republican Senator Rob Portman announced his support for gay marriage. Days later, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did the same in this video. Clinton had previously supported civil unions. And if that weren’t enough, The Washington Post released a poll showing support for gay marriage is at an all time high, with 58% in favor. With support at an astonishing 81% for 18-29 year-olds, George Will’s comment that “Opposition to gay marriage is literally dying” is dead on: the only age group with  a majority against it are those aged 65 and older.

I am astonished at the pace in which attitudes have shifted. As many others have mentioned, marriage on the ballot in a number of states helped George Bush to win in 2004, just over eight years ago. Virginia passed its own constitutional amendment defining marriage two years later. At the time, I thought it would be a generation or more before our nation moved towards marriage equality. And I thought I’d not live to see it.

(Of course, I’m still not confident I’ll live to see it in Virginia. After all, we were the last holdouts for interracial marriage. And despite the 2003 Lawrence v Texas decision, Virginia’s own sodomy laws remained on the books, having been struck down just last week. Kinda like the cohabitation law, whose repeal passed the legislature this year and awaits the governor’s signature.)

In the coming months, the Supreme Court will render decisions on a couple of cases that will impact marriage equality. I hope they make decisions that will be in favor.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.