N.J., Ohio Senators Plead for Marriage Equality

In advance of the April 28 Supreme Court hearing on marriage equality, two Democratic senators made the case for national marriage equality on Monday.

Cory Booker, the former mayor of Newark, N.J., and current junior senator from the Garden State, told the love story of Jim Obergefell and John Arthur. With Arthur dying of ALS, the Cincinnati men were forced to marry in Maryland because their home state didn't offer marriage equality.

"While they had taken their eternal vows together, while their marriage was affirmed by love, affirmed by this unbreakable commitment ... their marriage was disavowed by their own state," Booker said. "The state that John would eventually die in."

Ohio senior senator Sherrod Brown followed Booker and shared his feelings on marriage equality and Obergefell: "His marriage is still not equal in my state of Ohio. I'm embarrassed of that."