Brewster, Southeast Reacts to DOMA News: 'Times Are Changing'

"It means equality to all!"

"It means the end of religion."

"Wonderful day..." 

"...Equal rights to all!"

Those are some of the sentiments expressed by local folks on the Southeast-Brewster Patch Facebook page in response to the United States Supreme Court's 5-4 decision that the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional.

"Times are changing and people’s thoughts on marriage equality are changing," Southeast resident Bob Zubrycki, who recently married his longtime partner, said. "This push towards equality may seem to be happening very quickly, but today’s decision by the Supreme Court reflects decades of struggles and victories by folks here in Southeast, in New York State and throughout our nation."

Signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, DOMA kept the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages that had been legalized by the states. 

"I’m overjoyed by the court’s ruling and relieved that my marriage will finally be treated equally by the federal government," Zubrycki said. "After 22 years together and one year married, Washington is finally catching up with New York State and our wonderful friends and neighbors here in Southeast!"

Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy, Rtuh Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan voted in the majority to declare DOMA unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonio Scalia and Samuel Alito all filed dissenting opinions.

"The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimated purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity," Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. "By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others, the federal statue is in violation of the Fifth Amendment."

US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) spoke out in support of the Supreme Court ruling Wednesday.

"This is a historic day for our country on its long march towards upholding the fundamental values this country was founded upon of fairness, equality and justice," Gillibrandsaid. "I am overjoyed the Supreme Court has ruled to end the descrimination that had been enshrined into U.S. law."

Gillibrand said there is still work to be done on the federal level regarding DOMA.

"Now that the Supreme Court has ruled DOMA is unconstitutional, Congress must do its job and get this corrosive law off the books so there is certainty for all loving committed couples across state lines," Gillibrand said. "I promise to work hard to pass the Respect for Marriage Act and finally put the discriminatory DOMA policy into the dustbin of history where it belongs."

What do you think of Wednesday's Supreme Court ruling? Tell us here.

Editor's note: Ryan Buncher contributed to this story.