As we celebrate our nation's liberation this weekend, this quote from Dr. Martin Luther King has special meaning to so many of us. He wrote it while serving time in jail in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. Maybe all those who are counseling the LGBT community to be patient or wait or now is not the time might find some wisdom in these very important words.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."