Massachusetts has become the first state to challenge the federal Defense of Marriage Act defining the relationship as solely between a man and a woman. The argument? The federal definition directly impedes the states’ ability to govern, a federalist argument more typically made by  small-government conservatives.

It’s a brilliant legal gambit. When you think about it, aren’t we really the true conservatives any way? LGBT-ers have always moved around the country and globe–both to live and to travel–pursuing and creating accepting social climes. With gay marriage now legal in Connecticut and Iowa–and soon to be in Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire–we are gravitating to those great states in droves. Whereever we settle, we go about creating a freer, more equal political and legal system–for everyone. That’s one of the virtues of our political system, a virtue threatened by Congress when it made DOMA the law of the land.

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