I am overwhelmed with tears of joy, as are millions of other LGBT people and our millions of allies across America. We will remember for the rest of our lives where we were when we heard the sitting President of the United States say he supports marriage equality.

Today’s announcement by the President is of particular importance to those of us fighting in New Jersey and everywhere else marriage equality is up for grabs. No longer will opponents such as Governor Chris Christie be able to take cover by saying, “Why are you going after me? My opposition to marriage equality is simply the same view as that of our President.”

That political cover is now thrown into the dustbin of history parked outside the archives of prejudice, collecting its rhetorical trash.

Short of when America becomes a land of marriage equality, this is the happiest day of our political lives. I’m on Cloud 18.

In our view, the answer is no – that Ravi would not have invaded the privacy of a straight roommate. In fact, the most compelling evidence in the case, Ravi’s text messages, indicated exactly that. The text messages demonstrated beyond any doubt that Ravi was deeply uncomfortable with Tyler’s being gay, and that Tyler’s suitor was a guy.

So are we “happy” with the verdict? “Happy” doesn’t seem like the right word given that Ravi has been convicted and will now face the societal consequences. “Happy” also seems too trivial a word when we remember that Tyler Clementi lost his life. But we do believe this verdict sends the important message that a “kids will be kids” defense is no excuse to bully another student.

Though Tyler Clementi has left us, the rest of Dharun Ravi’s life will help tell his life story. Ravi’s own lawyer basically portrayed him as a young man who engaged in jerky, insensitive behavior. Ravi can stay that course, or he can do some good with his life by making amends and fighting for the justice and dignity of every individual, including people who are LGBT. That much is up to Ravi.

As for all of us, we must continue our focus on building a better world, one free of bullying of every student, so that a tragedy like this never happens again. That’s what New Jersey’s new Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, the country’s strongest anti-bullying law, is ultimately about.

Our thoughts and prayers remain with Tyler’s family and friends.

I’m talking, of course, about the appropriations bill that adds $1 million in new funding to the landmark anti-school bullying law that Garden State Equality conceived and got enacted last year. The new appropriations bill, like the anti-bullying law itself, will help students bullied because of their sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, among the many additional categories enumerated, as well as students bullied for any other reason.

To be sure, the catch-all – making sure the law covers students bullied for any reason – is as important to us as the enumerated categories are. We care about the safety and dignity of every child.

But let’s not take for granted that New Jersey once again is a national leader for LGBT rights, and for transgender civil rights specifically. The legislature passed an all-encompassing LGBT civil rights bill by an astonishing 107 to 2 vote in both houses. And our Republican governor has promised to sign the bill. When he does, it will be the 213th LGBT civil rights law enacted in New Jersey since Garden State Equality’s founding in 2004.

Most other states, even including some progressive states, have not been able to pass anti-bullying laws with enumeration protecting transgender people. A number of states, in fact, have not been able to pass anti-bullying laws with enumeration protecting lesbian, gay and bisexual people either.

In contrast, the 107 to 2 vote in the New Jersey Legislature today was the biggest margin ever for an LGBT civil rights law in state history.

It was a wonderful coda to a day in which Garden State Equality achieved an organizational milestone: We passed 100,000 members. It took many days for our spectacular interns to enter the new member data from our successful 2012 campaign to pass a marriage equality bill – a campaign where we now aim to override the Governor’s veto. When our interns were done, our total membership jumped from 89,000 to more than 101,750. And that doesn’t even include our 18,000 members on Facebook.

Thank you for being our sisters and brothers in history.

In January 2012, a quasi-judicial body called the Council on Local Mandates ruled that the state must provide additional funding for the law for it to continue. So over the past several weeks, barely skipping a beat after working to pass the marriage equality bill in the legislature, Garden State Equality has worked day and night with legislators of both parties, as well as with the Christie Administration, on a new bill to address the Council’s decision and save our landmark law.

Yesterday, the Governor and legislators of both parties held a news conference to announce a bill that will provide an additional $1 million in funding for our anti-bullying law. Participating at the news conference were the bill’s chief Democratic sponsor in the Assembly, Valerie Vainieri Huttle; the chief Republican sponsor in the Senate, Diane Allen; Garden State Equality Vice Chair Luanne Peterpaul, and myself. With such strong bipartisan support, the bill will sail through both houses and be signed by the end of next week.

In addition to the funding, the new bill will create a task force to promulgate guidelines for schools to help them implement the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights even more effectively. Thus America’s strongest anti-bullying law will become even stronger. By the way, you don’t have to take our word about the law: The U.S. Department of Education has issued a study ranking New Jersey’s anti-bullying law #1 among the anti-bullying laws of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The New York Times calls the law “the nation’s toughest law against bullying and harassment in schools.”

Just as bipartisanship got the law done last year, so, too, was bipartisanship key in this latest go-round. All of us at Garden State Equality thank not only the legislators present at the news conference yesterday, but also the law’s other prime sponsors, including Senator Barbara Buono, Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini and our Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg.

We thank the legislative staffers from District 37, Phil Meisner and Andrea Katz, both of whom worked tirelessly on last year’s law and on this new bill. Our state’s former Director of Civil Rights, Frank Vespa-Papaleo, has been instrumental in crafting the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, as has been Dr. Stuart Green, director of the New Jersey Coalition for Bullying Awareness and Prevention. The New Jersey State Bar Association, including Trustee Tom Prol, Felice Londa and the Bar Foundation’s top anti-bullying expert Leisa-Anne Smith, have been spectacular resources.

Among those who work outside the legislature, our deepest thanks must go to Garden State Equality Vice Chair and attorney Luanne Peterpaul, one of the country’s most devoted and knowledgeable champions of safe schools for our children. There would be no Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, or this new bill, without Luanne.

With equal dedication to students is Garden State Equality’s Youth and Anti-Bullying Director Shannon Kirk. She has spent countless hours empowering students to understand the principles behind the law. Thank you from the heart, Shannon. Our managing director Troy Stevenson has been there every step of the way in this signature organizational achievement. Thank you as well, Troy. And how could we ever express enough thanks to Audrey Wilf and the Wilf Family Foundations, who have believed in Garden State Equality’s anti-bullying work from the start, and truly make it possible. Audrey, you are our partner in saving lives, and countless students love you for it.

Our ultimate gratitude must go to the leaders at the top for the bipartisanship that brought us here. Our legislative achievements on bullying would never be possible without Senate President Steve Sweeney, Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg and the Senate Majority staff, as well as Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald and the Assembly Majority staff. There are no greater champions of equality than those who now lead the New Jersey Legislature.

In the spirit of bipartisanship, which is how we got here, I do thank the Governor and his staff. To be sure, we’re all still hurting over his veto of the marriage equality bill. And you know me – standing right next to the Governor at yesterday’s news conference, I told the press we will never stop fighting him until we achieve equality. We’re working hard on that override indeed.

But we must and do work with the Administration wherever we might have a common goal, such as on the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights and this new bill to make the law even stronger. Without the Governor and his staff, we would not have this new bill – period. Friends, it really is okay to give praise where praise is due. It doesn’t mean you’re a naïf or a sellout on issues like marriage equality where we have a fundamental disagreement with the Governor and will never cave in until we win. But it can mean that we’ll fight him on marriage equality one day, for instance, and work together with him on a school bullying bill the next day.

Eighty-five percent of LGBT students report they have been bullied at school, according to GLSEN – and an astonishing 40 percent of LGBT students report they have been physically bullied. Most shockingly, students who have been bullied at school are two to nine times more likely to have suicidal thoughts, according to a study from the Yale Medical School. Consider those numbers and you’re reminded nothing we do is more important than saving lives.

If that involves working with leaders from across the political spectrum, you bet we will. Anything else would be unconscionable.

Yet still we oppose changing New Jersey’s entire system of governance – which rightfully makes public referenda almost impossible – and oppose any constitutional amendment that would allow a public referendum on marriage equality. Thankfully, the leaders of our legislature, through which a referendum must first pass in New Jersey, won’t even post a referendum bill to committee.

First, you don’t put the civil rights of a minority up to a vote of the majority. The last time New Jersey did that was in 1915, when a statewide referendum was held to determine whether women should have the right to vote. 58 percent voted no, and 42 percent voted yes. Today a leading champion of equality, Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, says of women’s suffrage in New Jersey: “It took the legislature to pass it.” She’s right. In 1920, three years after the state’s unconscionable denial of equal rights for women through a public referendum, the New Jersey Legislature ratified the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution that gave women the right to vote everywhere in America.

Secondly, a public referendum is by no means an expression of popular opinion. Those who peddle that spin are feeding you a heap of misleading pablum. Rather, public referenda are instruments for corrupting the political system with tens of millions of dollars. If our opponents’ fantasy of a public referendum on marriage equality actually came to fruition in New Jersey, you can count on the wealthiest opponents of equality – almost entirely from outside New Jersey – to invest tens of millions of dollars to deny same-sex couples in New Jersey the freedom to marry. Our side couldn’t come to close to raising what they could.

Did I dare just admit that we would likely lose a public referendum on marriage equality in New Jersey? I did. The Governor, who last month vetoed the marriage equality bill, says he is being generous to our cause in his support of putting marriage equality on the ballot, because in his view, we’d have a good chance of winning.

To evoke the Governor’s direct-speaking language: Come on. Be real. Do the Governor and the other opponents of equality really expect us to believe they support a referendum because they’re confident our side would win? Stop it. They know they could buy the election, no matter where the poll numbers stand now.

Case in point: Proposition 8 in California, the November 2008 referendum where California voters defeated marriage equality 52 to 48 percent. In fact, several pre-election polls showed our side leading. Pay heed to these numbers: A Field Poll in California in September 2008 showed Proposition 8 losing – that is, our side winning – by 55 to 38 percent. Those are almost the same pro-marriage equality numbers we see in today’s Quinnipiac Poll of New Jersey. So what happened in California? An infestation of political money, including much out-of-state money.

By the way, given the recent decision of a panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution, the entire question of a public referendum in New Jersey ardently advanced by our opponents may be nothing more than a cynical political game.

Responding to our arguments against a public referendum, opponents of equality say our counterparts leading the fight for marriage equality for Maine were quite happy when marriage equality recently qualified for the November ballot in Maine. That’s a tiny piece of the story. In Maine, which has a process for putting an issue on the ballot that New Jersey does not have – by collecting voters’ signatures – the only way for our counterparts to win equality is by a referendum. That’s because Maine voters passed a referendum in 2009 nullifying the law passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor that instituted marriage equality.

Moreover, there’s another piece of history our opponents won’t tell you about Maine: In referenda in 1998 and 2000, Maine voters twice nullified the law passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor to provide LGBT people the most basic anti-discrimination protection, including in employment, housing and public accommodation. In other words, voters in Maine pro-actively made it legal for a company, landlord, hotel owner or shop owner to refuse to hire, rent to, or sell to a person because he or she is LGBT.

And therein lay the danger of a public referendum.