washington, d.c. that recognize same-sex marriages, but on a federal level, there isn t the proper protections in place. so how does this set of precident? you re right, the defense of marriage act prevents the government from recognizes any of the same-sex marriages that are happening all over the country. and in new york, that means i couldn t response soror henry t in this country, until the defense of marriage act falls, we won t have those 1,000-plus rights that all the nongay couples have. repealing the defense of marriage act is what we re going to start work on. does this not mean that the hard work isn t still ahead for you to help other people get to this point? exactly. we can now start building our future together and part of that future is to get fighting for equality in marriages like ours, because we still have a long way to go.