Minnesota has become the 12th state in the United States to allow gay marriage to be signed into law. The milestone has been made historic due to Minnesota being the first to pass such a law in the Midwest region, and to do so out of its legislature.The vote was approved 75-59. Six months prior, the state had turned back an effort to ban gay marriage in the state. Four of the House’s 61 Republicans voted for the bill while two of its 73 Democrats voted no.

This is slowly, glacially becoming less about a political issue but, as it should have been all along, beginning to be treated as an issue about equal human rights and human decency.

While there have been many to help in aiding the process of progress, Richard Carlbom is one whose name stands out. He was a driving force in the eyes of his allies behind the passing of the gay marriage law. He had lead a largely successful campaign to overcome the amendment to ban gay marriage in his state just last year and then made a swift turn around directly following and switched over to lobby lawmakers to legalize gay marriage.

While it’s encouraging to see the country move forward, because twelve is a greater number than just a year ago. It’s a cause for celebration for those LGBTQ members in Minnesota, this isn’t a clear cut sign of progress. It’s becoming tiresome to watch the U.S take such slow steps towards being an all-inclusive country.

Recently, the Ukraine has made history by staging its first gay rally, despite the discouragement from the courts and crowds shouting hateful things as they marched. The Puerto Rican House has approved an anti-discrimination bill. The U.K .marriage equality bill is confidently moving forward in solidifying its status, Portugal has allowed same sex couples to adopt and marriage equality has become law in France. All around the world countries are making steps in the progressive direction to allow their homosexual citizens to all bear the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts and it’s wonderful to watch. However, as the U.S. stands, we’re failing to truly live up to the name of freedom. Sure, we have twelve states that have passed the bill. We have Illinois which is nearing closer and closer to doing the same. We have a general overall attitude that gay marriage should be a non-issue at this point, yet despite this we’ve recently also seen a string of gay bashing in New York City.

We’re moving forward but we lack the conviction and vigilance to truly make a monumental difference. We’re letting the problems slide because we’ve become complacent to the glacial nature of the movement. We’ve learned to accept the notion that it’s a problem that will take time to fix but that doesn’t mean we should wait stationary and do nothing while the time crawls by. This is a non-issue to those of whom support LGBTQ rights, but to those who are actually hoping for the benefits that equality brings it’s their lives.