Marriage Equality Celebrated In All Life’s Corners
It did not seem to matter what any region thought about marriage equality on June 26 — everything was coming up rainbows.
After the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of marriage equality regardless of sexual orientation, several nations showed their support for the landmark decision, including Canada, where images of the iconic Niagara Falls were bathed in rainbow colors. The hashtag #MarriageEquality was trending in huge numbers, and #LoveWins continues to rank at the top of the Twitter trending list. Everyone, young and old, appeared to be thrilled with the historic ruling on marriage equality.
Ben & Jerry‘s beloved Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream also rebranded itself in honor of the ruling on marriage equality. This summer, they are selling I Dough, I Dough ice cream. When the SCOTUS ruling came down, the company celebrated with ice cream and rainbow colored mimosas. Ben & Jerry’s was one of the first companies to grant couples benefits regardless of sexual orientation. When the company’s home state of Vermont ruled in favor of marriage equality a few years ago, they rebranded their Chubby Hubby ice cream as Hubby Hubby, and when the U.K. legalized marriage equality, Apple-y Ever After was launched.
In anticipation of the ruling, Hillary Clinton’s campaign released a very emotional video in support of marriage equality.
Of course, the ruling came through by a 5-4 margin, which means there were four judges against the move towards nationwide marriage equality. Justice Antonin Scalia, perhaps the most vocal of the Supreme Court justices, made headlines June 27 because of his vocal dissent. In his dissent, he said, in part, “Whoever thought that intimacy and spirituality (whatever that means) were freedoms? And if intimacy is, one would think Freedom of Intimacy is abridged rather than expanded by marriage. Ask the nearest hippie.” Scalia’s statement gave rise to the hashtag #askthenearesthippie and the Twitter account @nearesthippie.
One of the best known hippies, David Crosby, scoffed at Scalia’s words, believing that the justice did not fully understand or appreciate the term hippie or, for that matter, the term gay. Scalia is a longtime conservative and so was questioning the need to legitimize marriage equality. Stephen Colbert, formerly of The Colbert Report, invited Scalia to Late Show and cheerfully took on all four justices who disagreed with marriage equality.
Whether the hashtag was #LoveWins or #MarriageEquality, everyone had something to say about the landmark SCOTUS ruling. Perhaps author and actor Chris Colfer, formerly of Glee, put it best when it came to the issue of marriage equality.
Looks like I'll be going to a lot more weddings!!! #MarriageEquaility #TodayInHistory
— Chris Colfer (@chriscolfer) June 26, 2015
[Photo by David McNew / Getty Images News)
