To join MomsRising.org and blog in support of LGBT families, click here.

The other day, something happened on my Facebook page that gave me hope for our children and our country’s future. My mom, a socially conservative evangelical Christian, hit the “like” button after I swapped my profile photo for the Human Rights Campaign’s red equal sign.

I am proud of her because, in spite of the attitudes she grew up with in her native Puerto Rico, in spite of what she has heard preached in her church’s pulpit and reservations she has articulated to me in the past about LGBTQ rights, she has ultimately come to the conclusion that human beings, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be treated equally under the law.

Amen!

And something I have shared with her in the past, which I hold dearly in my heart today, is this: I pray that if either of my children were gay, that they be treated fairly under the law.

But this is a fear that is waning. I am beginning to trust that their rights will be protected.

More and more we are seeing states with large populations of church goers pass marriage equality legislation. Polls consistently signal a shift in attitudes towards LGBTQ families, most definitely a welcome shift from when I was a Catholic School girl in Miami in the 1980s!

As for my children, who are being raised side-by-side children of LGBTQ families here in California, they don’t question it. They understand that every family makeup is different -- and beautiful -- when there is love in the home. All of this is heartening and gives me faith in the American people and our future as a country.

Of course, there is so much more we can do to make inroads in equity. For one, I was disappointed that LGBTQ families were not included in an immigration reform bill proposed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. I long for a day, in which the United States joins the ranks of industrialized countries that allow for citizens to sponsor their same-sex partners and formally recognize them as co-parents.

I’d like us to reach a point, in which official documents no longer list “mother” and “father” but “parents”. Many children are not raised by a mother and a father. Some have stepparents, same-sex parents, or are raised by a single parent, an auntie or an abuelita.

But I have faith that we will get there. For now, I am excited to witness this amazing piece of history!