Oral arguments in the marriage equality cases will be heard by the SCOTUS justices on April 28, 2015. Much of the discussion will center around the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, and whether it requires states to recognize marriages of same-sex couples. However, another very important event occurred on April 28, 1866 (149 years ago to the day of this important SCOTUS hearing). It had to do with the acceptance and edit to the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. The hero of the following story is Rep. John Bingham, one of the key leaders of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction at the time.
Many of the opponents of marriage equality and other gay rights issues like to say that the 14th Amendment only applies to race. However, the history of the development of the Equal Protection Clause does not support that premise.
From Slate:
The equal protection clause was added to the 14th Amendment—then in draft form—on April 28, 1866, 149 years to the day before the Obergefell argument. To understand the full story of this critical provision, it’s important to begin with some historical context.
Congress established the Joint Committee on Reconstruction in December 1865. The body was tasked with studying the conditions in the post-Civil War South and recommending a congressional response—one that might counter President Johnson, rally the Republican Party, and provide a new blueprint for Reconstruction. The committee’s most enduring legacy is Section 1 of the 14th Amendment—arguably, the most important provision added to our Constitution after the Bill of Rights.
A few days earlier, the committee had agreed on language for the proposed amendment that focused exclusively on the evils of racial discrimination, reading, “No discrimination shall be made by any State, or by the United States, as to the civil rights of persons because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” However, Bingham convinced his fellow committee members to broaden this language.
Bingham’s key move was to craft a new provision that promised “equal protection of the laws” for all persons, not just African Americans. In one of the most important edits in American history, Bingham added text that was, as he later explained, “a simple, strong, plain declaration that equal laws and equal and exact justice shall hereafter be secured within every State of the Union,” guaranteeing “equal protection” for “any person, no matter whence he comes, or how poor, how weak, how simple—no matter how friendless.”
Had that edit not been made, the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause would have protected against racial discrimination, however there would not have been any protection against gender or sexual orientation discrimination (or for any other minority/class) at the state level.
There is much more to the story, and it is very interesting and educational (for those who don't already know it).