Today is Nebraska Admission Day. The state motto here is "Equality Before the Law."
That is true, unless you want to be married. Then your equality depends on who you are. Some are more equal than others.
Governor Pete Ricketts (R) and Attorney General Doug Peterson (R) have a chance to live up to the ideal in that motto.
Now is the time to drop the case against marriage equality in the Federal courts: denying the right to marry and all the attendant rights and privileges that go with marriage is not equality before the law.
Now is the time to stop wasting our tax money to advance a case for legalised discrimination in Nebraska.
Governor Ricketts has the opportunity as our newly-elected governor to carve a name for himself; he can can carve a legend of standing up for equality for all Nebraskans, and others who visit our state.
He can also choose to carve a darker legend. Like Governor Wallace of Alabama before him, he can choose to stand on the side of bigotry and inequality.
The stand against marriage equality has no basis in any legal theory other than religious sensibilities. In the places where people really are equal before the law, not a single opposite-sex marriage has been destroyed by the granting of same-sex marriage rights. Not one.
In May, my wife and I will be in Omaha on behalf of my family to receive an award from the Nebraska Gold Star Mothers Association, and Honor and Remember. That award is to honour our family over my father's death in Vietnam, which was finally recognised forty-five years late.
That honour for my family will be darkened by bigotry, however.
My sister (an Army veteran whose marriage is recognised by the Federal government but not our state) and her wife will not be there. She will not come to a state where her rights end at the state line. She and her wife are not equal to me and my wife before the law.
My mother (a Vietnam-era Navy veteran whose late husband is the point of this award) will not be here either, as she will not come to a state which discriminates against her daughter.
I will be there though (a disabled Navy veteran), to stand for my family because my sister is not equal to other war orphans and veterans under Nebraska law. I will be the silent representative against open discrimination against our military veterans and Gold Star families.
That pin which is my avatar is the Gold Star Family Lapel Button, created by Congress in 1947 to honour the families of fallen servicemembers. It may only be displayed by those to whom it was awarded.
It was awarded to my family in 2013 for the death of my father in 1968 at a ceremony at Bridgeport Public School here in Nebraska. It was awarded to all of my family, not just the ones married in opposite-sex marriages. My mother and sister were not here for that award either. Instead, they received their pins in the mail.
Governor Ricketts, do you wish to stand for "equality under the law" as our state motto says, or do you wish to be remembered in history as Governor George Wallace of Alabama is with his infamous inauguration speech that said, "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever?"
The history of liberal democracies and democratic republics is one of expansion of rights, not curtailment of rights. Those who seek to curtail rights are left behind in the dustbin of history.
Do the right thing, Governor Ricketts. Don't make Nebraska the last state standing on the wrong side of equal rights.
Order Attorney General Peterson to stop wasting our tax money in a futile effort to deny equal rights. Live up to our state motto, be bold, and create your place in Nebraska history as the governor who stood up for equality before the law.