Legalities
75 years ago: A woman named Ann Dunham would have been unable to marry her husband, and the father of her first child. Why? She was white. He was black. She married her husband in Hawaii in 1961, and there were still at least 19 states with laws specifically prohibiting her marriage then. The last of those laws preventing a white from marrying a black were struck down in 1967 in Loving vs Virginia. 16 states still had laws against interracial marriage when the Supreme Court ruled unanimously against the constitutionality of banning interracial marriage.
In that ruling, the Supreme Court stated that "Marriage is one of the 'basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival.... "
Today: My aunt lives in a committed, long-term relationship which she has been in for the past 25 years. She has raised a daughter very near my own age in this relationship, a woman near my own age who recently got married. My aunt lives in New York State. If she chose to wed, regardless of what state the marriage took place in, currently it would be recognized by her home state. But my aunt can only marry her partner in Massachusetts and Connecticut. There are now at least 42 states in which she cannot marry her partner at all.
Why? My aunt's partner is a woman.
Will it take another 50 years for Ann Dunham's son and the US judicial system to restore what has been cited as a basic civil right to all US citizens?