I’m sure by now you’ve all heard that North Carolina passed Amendment 1 on Tuesday, taking a statutory ban on same sex marriage and enshrining it in their state constitution. A sad truth is that change is slow. In some cases this is good since hasty changes can be disastrous, but this isn’t one of them.

As more and more states legalize same sex marriage and with our current post-DADT military, it won’t be long until a gay or lesbian couple who was legally married in one of the handful of states that allows it sues the government over DOMA so as to secure spousal benefits (like health insurance), or moves to a state that has a ban on even recognizing same sex marriages, is denied a legal spousal right, and sues that state over the full faith and credit clause in the constitution. Whether or not these suits could be won would be questionable, but the likelihood will increase as time progresses and people’s attitudes continue to change.

Progress could come from the democratic processes, but it would be very slow. Legal equal rights for blacks took 100 years and the right to vote for women took more than 40 (with full legal equality for women having still not been attained). Also, considering the number of states that already have constitutional bans on same sex marriage, even a act of congress would challenged in the courts, right where it belongs. Sure, democracy is a nice thing, but as North Carolina just demonstrated, the rights of a minority should never be put up to a popular vote.