WATCH: What's Next as Marriage Equality Machines Begin Winding Down

I started the weekly equality news show Marriage News Watch during the Proposition 8 battle (back then it was called "This Week in Prop. 8"), and for the last few years we've all had our gaze locked tight on the ultimate prize: full national marriage equality.

Now, with that goal won, it's time for the tools of the marriage equality fight to take a breath, look around, and start reading up on retirement options. There's still plenty of work to be done, of course; and the people who fought the battles still have their work cut out for them. But now begins a gradual shuttering of projects like Marriage News Watch that were focussed on achieving marriage equality.

For the last few years, MNW has been a project of the American Foundation for Equal rights, which has seen a lot of change since its founding: AFER prominently gathered a team from across the ideological spectrum to make the case for marriage, and won one court case after another before the Supreme Court allowed marriage to resume in California in 2013. During that time, public support for marriage equality shot up at around two percentage points per year.

Of course, AFER isn't alone in fighting for the freedom to marry. Millions of people played a part, whether they attended a rally, wrote about why marriage matters, shared videos, or simply lived their lives openly and honestly. The opening up of marriage reflects a larger social change in which all Americans have taken part.

For now, AFER's channel will stay up; and I'll continue producing videos on LGBT issues. You can follow my work over on my YouTube channel, or via @mattbaume on Twitter, or on my podcast The Sewers of Paris.

Huge thanks to all the thousands of people who've watched and shared Marriage News Watch over the last few years. It means so much that we've all been able to work toward marriage equality together. If there's anything we've learned in that time, it's that visibility is key. And so even a simple act like watching a video, commenting, and sharing helps change the world for the better, one person at a time.