People Speak out on DOMA and Prop 8 Being Overturned

Edie Windsor attends the 2013 Pride Parade in Manhattan
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It is no secret that the Supreme Court overturned the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California’s Proposition 8. It was on the front of big newspapers, including The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and more. Many people celebrated this weekend in gay pride parades. From Seattle and San Fransisco, to New York City, people showed their pride.

Edie Windsor is well-known in the LGBT community. She became the face of the fight against DOMA, after her partner of many years passed away. She sat down with Diane Sawyer on ABC Word News after the Supreme Court Ruling.

Windsor actually got a chance to speak to President Obama. “I talked to the president this morning,” she said, “and he was absolutely charming and congratulated me and I thanked him for what he had done in speaking up.”

When talking about her late wife, she said, “I looked at her picture and I said ‘Honey it’s done!’ I know what she would say, she would say, ‘You did it honey!’”

Ken Mehlman, a Republican activist for marriage equality spoke to OUT Magazine after the ruling. He said that he “wasn’t surprised by the results…If you read Justice Kennedy’s opinion, and I take him at his word, he looked at that law, read the legislative history of the law, and concluded that the law should be overturned.”

Mehlman also talked about how the fight is not over, “The single most important role is the role of every one of your readers…the role everyone has in simply coming out and telling their story to their family and their friends and their colleagues. There are so many examples, every day. What was so compelling about these cases was Edie’s story and Edie’s example.”

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Cher has been a big celebrity activist for gay rights. She headlined the gay pride events in New York. When asked what her thoughts on the ruling were on the Today show, she said “I thought it was amazing. It should never have been a law, it shouldn’t have been anything. It should never have been a passing thought,” she said.

She also spoke about her transgender son Chaz Bono’s transition, “It was really difficult because it’s hard for like 40 something years to have this little girl, and then all of a sudden…You get used to it. I always screw up with my pronouns, but Chaz cuts me some slack. I’m old.”