The request to those who advocated most strenuously for marriage equality to observe magnanimity in “victory” is short-sighted. There was no victory, no score, no feather on a cap. 

Same-sex couples do not exist to “win” anything. They exist out of long-term love and affection, and they exist for that same purpose. 

That gays were made into targets of culture warriors is a major tragedy, albeit not as grievous of an offense as the scapegoating, criminalization, demeaning and incarceration of homosexuality into a forced closet. 

There was no victory, only realizations. A realization of unconstitutionality, a realization of forcible impoverization, a realization of meaningless, unreasonable denial of humanity and worth. 

Yesterday, our nation, as a whole, realized yet another facet of our inhumanity toward other Americans, and reduced that inhumanity a bit more than the last time that we made such a reduction. 

It is a progression, one on which individualists and communitarians alike will evolve in their own ways, but hopefully will not devolve in irrational disgust. 

Let’s move forward.