The cultural forces that allowed the Fifth Avenue parade organizers to keep gay groups out still exist, but they are no longer prevalent. This year, thanks to the dedication and hard work of activists (involving protests, civil disobedience and arrests), Irish gay groups are being included in the "official" St. Patrick's Day parade.

Sadly, we live in a world where the concept of true love has traditionally been defined as that between a man and a woman. Social norms state that people in same-sex relationships simply don't deserve to be celebrated in the same fashion as their heterosexual counterparts.

So far, the Supreme Court has been much more cautious about same-sex marriage than it was about inter-racial marriage a half-century ago. Its two rulings in June 2013 -- overturning DOMA and California's Prop 8 -- reflected the basic conservatism of the Roberts Court.