It was the wee hours of a frosty morning, and I was wandering with no particular direction in mind, taking one back road after another, letting the roads lead my adventure. 

My task for the day was to capture farm-related photos for a branding gig, and the rural byways of the Sullivan Catskills seemed the obvious place to find them. 

Then I saw the sign. It was small, not much bigger than a piece of paper, hanging from a thin black iron stand a few feet from the road. If I hadn’t been driving slowly, my eyes shifting back and forth for sights that would fit the photo assignment, I might even have missed it. 

In simple black cursive lettering, it declared its message: love is love. Lest the words were not enough to get the point across, bright bands of color stretched from top to bottom, arranged in the hues of the rainbow. 

Yes, this was a sign in support of equality for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. 

Yes, it was set up on a back country road in the boondocks, the property behind it like all the others around it with a pick-up truck parked in the driveway to the right and an aging barn to the left. It looked just like any other country back road property, the kind you’d expect to see accompanying a national news story about “small town values” and “one-stoplight towns.” 

In essence, the property fit right into the rural landscape. 

The sign on its front lawn did too. 

This week we as a nation will mark the 10-year anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision that extended the legal right to marry to gay and lesbian Americans. In a 5-4 ruling, the high court declared the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution protected people’s fundamental right to choose who to marry.

Penning the majority decision in the historic Obergefell v. Hodges case on June 26, 2015, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, “Marriage responds to the universal fear that a lonely person might call out only to find no one there. It offers the hope of companionship and understanding and assurance that while both still live there will be someone to care for the other.”

In small towns, to care for your neighbor is to recognize that “love is love” is core to the values we hold so dear. 

Because whether you live in a big city high rise or drive a pick-up truck around a farming town, love will always fit.