The Heart of Marriage

Back in 1996, at the time Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, I wrote a story for this magazine suggesting that individual states might have different types of unions for same-sex and heterosexual couples. Seventeen years later, that seems like a quaint and very outdated idea. As David Von Drehle’s cover story makes clear, over the past four decades there has been a rapid evolution in thinking about same-sex marriage. Whatever the Supreme Court decides, it seems clear that the majority of Americans feel marriage is a civil right and that denying that right to people because of their sexual orientation is a violation of equal protection under the law. The idea of same-sex marriage makes many people uncomfortable, but the court suggested in the past that equal protection and the right to privacy trump moral disapproval. Speaking of uncomfortable ideas: we had a long debate in our offices about this week’s cover images of two same-sex couples. Some thought they were sensationalist and too in-your-face. Others felt the images were beautiful and symbolized the love that is at the heart of the idea of marriage. I agree with the latter, and I hope you do too.

Richard Stengel, MANAGING EDITOR