here's to you, justice kennedy

5 years ago today, i was working in a shitty job (natch) crying in my office reading the eloquent, rare, delivered from-the-bench text of Justice Kennedy's on the gay's first real legal win, Lawrence v. Texas. sodomy has long been practiced, people, but has only been legal for 5 short years. this was our brown vs. board of education. this case was the first time the supreme court recognized homosexuals as citizens, with rights to privacy like everyone else.

justice kennedy, i fell in love with you a little that day, and i've followed you're judgements since. i've even read your biography. you are now the crucial swing vote in a bitterly divided court, but like Sandy O, i know you'll do the right thing in your cases. you already have.

so here's to you, justice kennedy. i will drink a chocolate beverage in your honor tonight.

" These matters, involving the most intimate and personal choices a person may make in a lifetime, choices central to personal dignity and autonomy, are central to the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. Beliefs about these matters could not define the attributes of personhood were they formed under compulsion of the State."

"Persons in a homosexual relationship may seek autonomy for these purposes, just as heterosexual persons do. The decision in Bowers would deny them this right."