Thank You, Senator Casey.

A week ago today, I posted All Things Being Equal, in which I shared my thoughts on marriage equality and mothering a daughter in a world where, in my eyes, love is love.

I had been following a story surrounding Senator Bob Casey, Jr. on Equality Pennsylvania's Facebook page since last Tuesday, when the U.S. Supreme Court was hearing cases regarding Proposition 8 and DOMA.

Senator Casey was one of the last 9 United States Senators to "hold out" on not supporting marriage equality until YESTERDAY, when he announced his support of all couples who wanted to marry.

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I think this is really awesome for a couple of reasons.  First, thanks to social media, I got to literally(-ish) watch the whole thing evolve.  Equality Pennsylvania regularly asked its Facebook followers to "Like" posts regarding Senator Casey's position on marriage equality to express to him that we respectfully wanted him to reconsider his stance.

Second, the Caseys have been a noticeable thread in the political fiber of Pennsylvania for many, many years.  For the Senator (who is a socially-conservative Democrat) to reconsider and then openly offer support on such a controversial issue shows progress, and progress is GOOD.

Third, Senator Casey set a beautiful example, and reflects something that I believe in very deeply: the fact that it's OK to change your mind.  If you said you believed in one thing and your ideas have changed, you met someone who changed your mind, or read something that swayed you the other way...it's OK!  The honorable thing is to be openminded and available to discussing the fact that you might have adopted new ideals.  Digging your heels in for the sake of staying the same gets us nowhere.

Photo courtesy of phillyburbs.com

Thanks, Senator Casey.  You unequivocally did the right thing and PA is proud!