For the people who believe that they can stop same-sex marriage, I hate to tell you this, but you can't.

Same-sex marriage has existed since the beginning of time. It is not legislated and will not go away no matter who's against it.

Religionists can perch upon a million bibles and amendments and it won't stop same-sex marriage. Just look around you and you'll see numerous examples of long term marriages between two people of the same sex.

Consider the two little old ladies who live down the street. They're not sisters; they're a long time married couple. They'd been together for over 45 years. They sleep in the same bed and care for each other when they are sick. They plant flowers together and feed their pets. They attend family gatherings arm in arm. They even pray together.

Those two cute guys who live in the antique farm house with the geranium plants hanging from the porch? They're not a couple of single guys living together to share expenses. No way. They are deeply in love; making a home for themselves and hopefully for the children they want to adopt in the future. But one's a doctor and the other is a guidance counselor, yes true. Gay people are in every profession there is .

A non-hypothetical marriage that spanned over 50 years was my Aunt Terry's.

Aunt Terry had a very wonderful "best friend" named Ella and they spent all their spare time together. Sometimes Ella would even stay at Terry's house because it would be late for her to drive home. They went to weddings, showers, funerals together. They went to Europe and Asia and Mexico together. They wore matching charm bracelets and worked on home projects together.

After numerous years of quasi-separate living, they bought a vacation house together where they decorated their bedroom in whites and blues, entertained the neighbors with gourmet meals and helped out everyone they ever met.

They were as different in appearance as night and day. Aunt Terry was petite with sandy gray hair she wore clipped on the top of her head. Her long fingers and fine features made you think she came from royalty. Her soft voice and sharp mind somehow seemed incongruous.

Her business acumen allowed her to choose stocks that would assure her a very comfortable retirement in her home by the ocean. She always drove convertibles and worried about Ella's health.

Ella was tall and sturdy, stubby fingered and strong. She had a temper that would flare and Terry would often say: Ella, don't get upset. It's not such a big deal. We can handle it. Don't let it get to you. Terry was a soother, a listener and a lover of all living creatures.

Ella fought injustices all the time. A beloved high school teacher, she was devoted to her students; and when she died many of them attended her funeral saying she was one teacher they would never forget. She had changed their lives; she had made them think or feel loved or helped them get into the college of their choice. She remembered their birthdays.

As I aged, the term "best friends" morphed into the more appropriate term: married couple. I got it eventually without anyone saying a word about being gay.

I admired this married couple, enjoyed their beach house and their hospitality, their stories, anecdotes and intellectual conversations. I met their friends who were wildly different; gay couples, lesbian couples, married couples, singles, widows, widowers, but who all shared one characteristic: they were good, kind, moral people.

When Ella died, Terry was distraught. Her life partner had left her alone in this world and Terry's heart was broken.

In less than a year Terry had joined her, side by side, in the same plots they bought 30 years before assuring them that in death they would not be separated.

They were as married as you can get.

So same sex marriage is not about you or me or anybody allowing two people to love each other and to live a married life, it is just about being treated equally under the law.

Terry and Ella needed no one's permission to live out a full, happy and rich married life together. They only missed out on the paperwork and yes, their full civil rights as any American citizen under the constitution is supposed to be entitled.

They never missed out on the emotional and romantic part of marriage and were and still are a wonderful example for any two people in love to follow. No one can stop one person from loving another person, it’s impossible. No one stopped them from being a married couple. They had less rights but more love than many, many heterosexual marriages.

I hope we don’t have to wait a day longer for the Terrys and Ellas of the world to have what they most certainly deserve -- equality under the law: the right to be legally married.

(Good luck Doc and Dj on Monday's court date. )