Yesterday, we ran a story about Kent State’s USG being the first student government in the state to officially endorse equal marriage rights in Ohio. This resolution came after freshman political science major Matt Chernesky brought the issue to USG’s attention.

Chernesky is the campus director of FreedomOhio, an organization striving to bring marriage equality to the state.   

Subsequently, USG’s programming director, Marvin Logan, and director of governmental affairs Joe Bizjak co-sponsored the endorsement in efforts to set the example for other organizations to increase support for the issue.  

We are pleased with USG’s endorsement of marriage equality, especially being the first student government in the state to do so.  

However, is the mere endorsement of marriage equality enough to make a real difference?

And why was the endorsement not made until a student and marriage equality advocate prompted USG to do so, despite promises made during last year’s USG elections?  

We applaud Chernesky, who originally brought FreedomOhio to the Kent campus because he believes students are “generally progressive and would be in favor of marriage equality.” His actions taken on the issue were followed by USG’s decision to endorse it, showing that being active can indeed make a difference.

He went on to detail his future plans for increasing support of the issue.

“I’m writing a declaration for support of marriage equality, and I’m trying to get as many student organizations and Greek organizations as possible to sign on and show their support,” he said. “And I eventually want to get in contact with the administration to see if Kent State will officially become the first public university in Ohio to come out in favor of it. I actually want to talk to the new incoming president Beverly Warren, because I know she has pro-LGBT stances from her time at Virginia Commonwealth University.”

We hope USG continues to follow Chernesky’s example in actively raising support for marriage equality in Ohio.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.