(silence)
(reporter) A historic day here at the Supreme Court...
(triumphantly) Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!
Oh, so it's about this thing, about the gay rights.
(reporter) ...Justice Kennedy saying that the right to marriage
You don't want to be afraid to love someone.
(reporter) ...same sex marriage is a nationwide constitutional right
and this is one of the greatest civil rights issues
- of our time and this-- - Yup.
So it's about gay marriage, right?
(reporter) ...have been hoping for for decades that they can get
married, no matter what state they live in,
and today that is what has happened here at the Supreme Court
(choking up) It makes me so happy.
You don't want to be afraid to love someone,
(Obama) Our nation was founded on a bedrock principle:
- that we are all created equal. - Yes.
(Obama) That all people should be treated equally,
regardless of who they are or who they love.
It's a victory for gay and lesbian couples
who have fought so long for their basic civil rights.
I don't even know what to say.
(Obama) ...whose families will now be recognized as equal to any other.
(Obama) Americans of goodwill continue to hold a wide range of views
The opposition, in some cases, has been based on
sincere and deeply held beliefs.
It's crazy that in ten years this is gonna be in history books.
(Obama) All of us who welcome today's news should be
There's so much more work to be done
to extend the full promise of America to every American, but--
See, but I don't know if this is legal everywhere
(Obama) ...that we've made our union a little more perfect.
He's saying that it's good that they succeeded.
(Obama) It is a consequence of the countless small acts of courage
of millions of people, across decades,
made an entire country realize
(Obama) America should be very proud.
It's sad to think that this wasn't legal before.
It's a right 'cause these people that the same gender
that really wanna marry each other can.
I thought I would be in my twenties or thirties
by the time that same sex marriage was legalized.
#LoveWins.
(Finebros) Okay, so what just happened here in the United States?
for gay marriage to be allowed everywhere.
They are now allowed in all of the states in America.
All 50 states, same sex marriage is legal.
(Finebros) What happened was the Supreme Court of the United States
made it the law that men can marry men if they want
and women can marry women if they want
when before only some of the states allowed that.
What do you think of that decision?
I'm not saying it's a bad decision.
Love means love, like he said.
It's good because people just wanna be who they wanna be
for us being able to accept homosexuality.
You can't discriminate against other people
just because they wanna marry somebody else.
If you're not able to marry someone that you love,
Now people can have a very good, happy life
and love their people that they marry.
(Finebros) We talked to you about this once before,
about two years ago, about gay marriage.
- Do you remember? - (whispering) I was...
(Finebros) Yeah, you were really little.
(whispering) Oh, yeah.
(Finebros) You felt like it maybe was a bad thing,
but do you still feel that way now?
last time I was concerned that it was not good.
Now I'm in a higher grade. I read more books,
get more information about stuff.
(Finebros) Okay, so how did you first find out about this, really?
On the news because that was just everywhere on the news.
and I saw everyone with the #LoveWins
and I was like, "Wait... wait."
My grandmother told me about it.
My dad and my mom, they told me about it.
"There's a new law that a boy and a boy
and a girl and a girl can get gay and get married
(Finebros) So we talked about this in an episode of Kids React before.
Yeah, like-- when was that? Two years ago?
(Finebros) And you also were not very aware of the idea
of people being gay back then.
(Finebros) Would you say that kids today are aware about
gay marriage and gay people more than they were
- a couple of years ago? - I think they should be.
I think we're more educated on that now.
It sometimes comes up on the playground sometimes.
Kinda, like, an awkward conversation starter?
"Hi, have you heard about gay and lesbian people?"
Kids, they don't really get to that subject that much.
They've never seen people who are gay.
It's not like you see it every day, but there's always people
that are making fun and people that support it.
(Finebros) And why was this not always legal?
Even in the Constitution it says everybody should be treated equally.
Maybe because people get mad at things that are different.
Because it's all based on your religion.
One big reason, and this is always a reason in a lot of debates,
I think most of it is religion based.
Some people might just think it's wrong.
They probably thought it was odd and not right,
I mean, you're either born that way or you're not.
It's really sad because it's not like a choice.
(Finebros) So before this became legal,
it was up to the individual states to decide and one of the main arguments,
even the Supreme Court Justices who were against this say,
is that it's not the place of the government to force states
I think it's a good system, but in cases like this
it shouldn't have worked out like that.
In certain times, they need to do this
That's why we're called the United States of America.
I think that they're using that as an excuse.
"(disingenuously) Oh no! Our religion doesn't--
what we believe doesn't go into our politics"
The bigger picture is that everyone should be equal
because that is something that America was founded on.
(Finebros) But supporters say that when it's in the Constitution
that everyone should be treated equally,
it's okay to force all the states to allow gay marriage.
- What do you think? - I'm not quite sure.
I think it's fine to force them.
If they're not forced, guess what?
They're all gonna say, "No, no, no."
(Finebros) So another big controversy with all of this is religion
and that it's not right to now force a religion
to have to listen to the law if it's against their religion.
- What do you think about that? - This is really tricky.
It's not your decision to make them not love each other
You're just making the world not a better place.
If you believe in it, then just you don't get married,
but let other people do what they want.
One thing, it's religion about God.
And one thing, it's about the rights.
They should be able to do this.
Should we do what's right or should we follow the way of God?
It's kind of hard to make that decision.
People that are against gay marriage
and are against it because of religion,
It doesn't really affect you that much.
You have to be who you want to be,
and just because your religion is against it-- I mean, come on.
I am completely fine with religion as long as it's not hurting other people
I almost wonder if some people,
they wanna say, "Oh, gay marriage is fine"
but they feel like they have to say that it's not
just because of their religion.
(Finebros) And what do you think someone is supposed to do
if they want to support people who are gay,
but believe in a religion that clearly says that being gay is wrong?
It's... (sighs)... that's kind of hard!
I don't think it's right, but I'm kind of happy that it passed.
If you're saying that you can't be supportive to your gay friend,
then that's pretty much saying that you can't be supportive
And so then it's kind of like a religion rule
going against another religion rule.
And that would be confusing for people.
They're okay with people doing whatever they want,
but they can't support it themselves,
Just be aware of other people's beliefs,
and I think it goes both ways.
But I also don't like when people say,
when people are mean to religious people
and then they make generalizations.
I'm not a teen yet, so I don't know.
I'm only going into the second grade.
And I still have twelve more years until college.
(Finebros) And do you know anyone in your life
that is against gay marriage or gay people?
Not really 'cause if so then they probably aren't my actual people
because you should be okay with it.
If they're really against it, I mean, I wouldn't be okay with that,
but I wouldn't get mad at them.
My cousins call it inappropriate.
I try to stay calm and not get in an argument.
I know somebody who is really religious.
They probably don't know the struggle.
They think it's not right even though people are just born that way.
(Finebros) And do you think this becoming legal
is gonna mean more people will accept it?
There's still gonna be some people that don't accept it.
There's probably some people that are just upset
that it has become a thing and it's gonna lead to more hate.
Hopefully, it will go on for years.
So people will start to grow on it and start to accept it.
I think, eventually, maybe, there will be a compromise
where everyone thinks that gay marriage is right
in every country, but I don't think that'll happen in my lifetime.
(Finebros) It's not the first time equal rights has resulted
in laws changing in the United States.
In the past, women used to not be allowed to vote.
What?!
- (Finebros chuckles) - Thank goodness.
First it was gender, and then race,
and now it's sexual orientation.
(Finebros) And it used to be that a black person
could not legally marry a white person.
Oh, that was-- that was recent too, right?
(Finebros) Yeah, only about 50 years ago.
(Finebros) So do you think that, in the future, people
are gonna look back and be shocked to learn that same sex marriage
- used to be illegal? - Well, yeah.
Kids, twenty years from now, are going to be like,
If history repeats itself, hopefully, in twenty years people are gonna say,
They're probably going to be like, "What?
That shouldn't have ever been a thing."
And then there's probably gonna be more things
that aren't legal, but should be legal
and it's just gonna go on and on
because everybody can't agree.
(Finebros) So on that note, you're a kid right now,
but one day you're gonna grow up
and there's gonna be kids that haven't been born yet
who, at least in the United States,
will always have lived in a world where same sex marriage was legal.
So what are your thoughts that you're alive during
this big moment in civil rights history
that you get to actually experience?
I never kinda thought that that would happen.
I thought everything already did happen.
My grandchildren will have very good stories to hear from me.
Living through it right now, it doesn't really seem
like it's something that's part of history.
It just seems like, "Oh, this is what's going on."
When you're at school and you just heard things that happened,
crazy things that happened a long time ago,
back then people were like, "Gay marriage, never gonna
Now it is, so it's good to be alive when it happens.
This is actually the very first time
something that I was alive changed,
I can't wait to tell kids that this happened.
(silence)