"DOMA undermines both the public and private significance
of state sanctioned same-sex marriages; for it tells those couples, and all the
world, that their otherwise valid marriage sare unworthy of federal
recognition. This places same-sex couples in an unstable position of being in a
second-tier marriage. The differentiation demeans the couple, whose moral and
sexual choices the Constitution protects, see Lawrence, 539 U. S. 558,
and whose relationship the State has sought to dignify. And it humiliates tens
of thousands of children now being raised by same-sex couples. The law in
question makes it even more difficult for the children to understand the
integrity and closeness of their own family and its concord with other families
in their community and in their daily lives."
United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. (2013) (Slip Opinon, Opinion of the Court, p. 22-23)
