Following the U.S. Supreme Courts two monumental rulings on gay marriage, it is worth remembering that Oregon tore its guts out over homosexuality twice in recent memory. A social activist named Lon Mabon and his Oregon Citizens Alliance in 1992 placed Measure 9 on the ballot stating that government cannot facilitate homosexuality and must discourage it. Measure 9 lost by a margin of 56-44.

Measure 13 on the 1994 ballot would have created classifications of people based on homosexuality. This measure was so pernicious that educators rose up against it. The measure lost by a margin of 51-49.

A majority of Umatilla County voters supported both measures.

As recently as 2004, an astounding 72 percent of Umatilla County (and a majority of Oregon voters) supported restricting marriage to one man and one woman.

How quickly things have changed. The ugliness of the politics surrounding measures 9 and 13 seems a distant memory. The 2004 vote already looks like ancient thinking.

Rulings that just three years ago would have loomed as polarizing and even stunning instead served to underscore and ratify vast political changes that have taken place across much of the country, wrote Adam Nagourney from Los Angeles for The New York Times.

The Supreme Courts majority has opened the door to the next era of human rights in America.

It has often been noted that you cannot legislate an end to racism. Similarly the court majority will not convert homophobes.

America is in the midst of a titanic political struggle. But as Jonathan Alter notes in his new book The Center Holds: Obama and his Enemies, the struggle is not between liberals and conservatives. It is between centrists and those who do not believe in government.

Remnants of sexism, racism and homophobia are still holding on for power, pitted against more advanced thinking.

There remain a faction of political leadership that is anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-minority. Alter even quotes a Republican leader in 2012 saying that women should not be allowed to vote.

With a multicultural, multiracial world looming, this is a scary time for many Americans and institutions.

But it shouldnt be.

With neighbors to the north and south now recognizing gays right to marriage, it is time for Oregon voters to take that step.

Along the way, we could right some of the political wrongs from our past.