It’s a warm summer day in June 2015, and the air buzzes with both tension and excitement. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, has just delivered a ruling that would go down in history: marriage equality is now the law of the land. The Supreme Court decision grants same-sex couples the right to marry in all 50 states. It’s a monumental moment, one that millions of LGBTQ+ individuals and allies had been fighting for, for decades.
Fast forward to today, and Justice Kennedy is reflecting on that life-altering decision. In a rare moment of public candor, he shares the driving force behind his ruling: children.
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The “Children” Factor: Why It Was Personal
Kennedy says, “For me, the important and perhaps deciding factor was the children.” And it turns out, this was no throwaway line. In fact, what’s striking about Kennedy’s reflection is how deeply the plight of children in same-sex households factored into his reasoning. “We were amazed to find that at first it looked like 75,000 children were adopted by gay parents,” he continues, but the reality was even more surprising: “it turned out they were in the hundreds of thousands.”
@bloombergpolitics Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy reflects on the landmark June 2015 decision he authored that legalized same-sex marriage in the United States. Watch “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer to Peer Conversations” tonight at 9 p.m. ET. #supremecourt gaymarriage #samesexmarriage
Let that sink in for a second: hundreds of thousands of children across the country were being raised by same-sex couples at a time when marriage equality was not yet recognized. And while this number might seem staggering in 2025, back in 2015 it was practically invisible to many lawmakers and the public.
The Harsh Reality: What These Families Endured
But here’s where it gets heartbreaking. Kennedy paints a picture of the harsh realities these children faced. “These children were in states that did not allow gay marriage,” he explains. That means, in the eyes of the law, many children had only one legal parent—not two. If a child became ill and needed hospitalization, for example, only the legally recognized parent could visit or make medical decisions.
The child would then have to explain, perhaps in the most emotionally raw moment of their young lives, that they didn’t have two parents. “The stigma and the hardship on the children was a very important factor for those of us in the majority,” Kennedy says, summing up the agony these families experienced.
Love Is Love: The Truth Behind the Decision
And let’s be clear here—Kennedy’s comments aren’t just about the legal rights of parents or a lofty philosophical debate. They’re about human beings, about kids who were caught in a system that refused to acknowledge their families in all their beauty, diversity, and love.
For so many of us, this decision wasn’t just about a legal victory; it was about our families finally being seen as legitimate. It was a recognition that love—the force that binds parents to children, that drives individuals to make the world a better place—doesn’t look like one thing, one shape, one gender. Love transcends gender, as it always has, and as the decision in Obergefell v. Hodges made abundantly clear.
But as Kennedy’s words remind us, it wasn’t just about the love between two people; it was also about the love between parents and their children. It was about creating a legal framework that acknowledged the rights of those children to have both of their parents by their side, without having to navigate a world that told them their families didn’t matter as much.
The Outdated Arguments Against Same-Sex Marriage
There’s a certain irony in the fact that many of the same arguments used to fight against marriage equality—that children thrive best in homes with heterosexual parents, that gay parents would somehow “damage” their children—now seem as outdated as a rotary phone. The truth, as Kennedy emphasizes, is that children raised in same-sex households are not only thriving, but they are also deserving of the same rights as those raised in any other family structure. It’s a truth that many of us have known for years, but it took the high court’s ruling to cement it in the law.
Beyond Marriage: A Battle for Family Recognition
As we look back on the legacy of Obergefell, there’s no denying that it was about much more than just the right to marry. It was about the right to be a family—fully, completely, and unapologetically. And for every child who finally had both parents’ names on their birth certificate, for every family who no longer had to navigate legal loopholes just to prove their worth, it was a moment of liberation.
Justice Kennedy’s reflection is a powerful reminder of how far we’ve come—and how far we still have to go. In the years since that landmark decision, LGBTQ+ rights have continued to evolve, but so have the stories of our families. There’s no one way to love, no one way to be a parent, and no one way to build a family. The ruling on marriage equality was, in many ways, just the beginning.
Celebrating the Children: The Real Heroes of the Story
So, here’s to the children—the real heart of this victory. To the ones who grew up with same-sex parents before the ruling, navigating a world that didn’t always make room for their love. And to those children born after the ruling, who will never have to wonder whether their families are “real.” They, like all children, deserve the freedom to love, to grow, and to thrive in the embrace of their family, no matter who it is.
As Kennedy reflects on that pivotal moment, it’s clear: for him, it was never just about the law. It was about justice, about families, and about children finally having the chance to be fully seen.
And in a world where visibility often equates to validation, that’s a victory worth celebrating.
Food for Thought
So if some states had not allowed same-sex families to adopt, would marriage equality have not happened? Would Kennedy’s focus been on same-sex partners in hospitals where one could not visit the other because that state did not recognize their marriage? We may never know, but for now, we will keep this win and thank the states that did allow same-sex partners to adopt children.