Ritchie Torres: “I dedicate my remarks to two civil rights icons, Edith and Judith Windsor. Today, we repeal the Defense of Marriage Act…”

“I dedicate my remarks to two civil rights icons, Edith and Judith Windsor. Today, we repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which degraded marriage under the pretense of defending it. Today, we put the equality of same- sex love in its rightful place under the protection of Federal law. We will not leave it to the forces of hate and the relics of the past to be the final word on the fate of love. We, in the LGBTQ community, will be the arbiters of our own legal equality and the authors of our own marital destiny, our equal right to marry the people that we love in the country that we love with the pride that we love. Today, that right makes America a more perfect union.”