WELCOME TO PRIDE Week, 2004. It's been a hell of a queer year.

As Tali Woodward points out on page 20, it was almost exactly a year ago – June 26, 2003 – when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that laws against gay sex are unconstitutional. The decision in Lawrence v. Texas was profound and dramatic: the court specifically noted that its previous ruling on sodomy laws, Bowers v. Hardwick, was "wrong then, and it's wrong now."

Paul Reidinger, our senior culture editor, who also happens to be a lawyer (not that there's anything wrong with that), had what I think was the most interesting comment anywhere on the case. "It's clear to me in reading it," he said, "that most of the members of the Supreme Court actually know some gay people." Remember, it wasn't all that long ago that the late Justice Lewis Powell told his (gay) law clerk that he didn't think he'd ever met a homosexual.

Like most public institutions, the Supreme Court these days has its share of openly gay employees who bring their partners to social events and introduce them to their bosses ... and that may have been as much a deciding influence on the justices as any abstract interpretation of constitutional law.

Which is why the second earth-shaking event of the year, the rise of same-sex marriage, will turn out to be a turning point in the queer civil rights struggle. I liked what the Boston Phoenix wrote after queer marriage became legal in Massachusetts: the events of the first day of same-sex marriage ceremonies demonstrated, the Phoenix said, the "the utter, mundane normality of lesbian and gay life." Most people who got married in Massachusetts (and in San Francisco) are in their 30s or older, had been together for many years, and were acting just like everyone else in the world does at their own weddings. And as more and more people around the country find themselves living next to married same-sex couples, they'll realize that it was not only horrible, mean-spirited, and homophobic to oppose this basic civil right; it was also pretty silly.

So even if George W. Bush is still in the White House, there's a lot to celebrate this year. There's also (obviously) still a whole lot of work to do, starting with making sure the beginning of the previous sentence changes this fall.

Tim Redmond