It is right to give credit to courageous plaintiffs, dedicated lawyers, and forward-leaning politicians when surveying the progress that culminated in the Supreme Court’s decision holding that same-sex marriage is protected by the Constitution. But to me, the change in public opinion that made that development possible was purchased at the price of a legion of beloved sons, brothers, uncles, classmates, colleagues, and friends who fell to the scourge of AIDS, and whose sufferings confronted straight Americans with the personal context of their own bigotries.
I am surprised that the fulsome commentaries on the court’s opinion seldom mention, and never credit, these ghosts.