On Monday, New Jersey came one step closer to passing legislation that would allow same-sex marriage when the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the bill by a 7-6 vote.

Aside from the legislation itself, supporters of gay rights had a number of things to celebrate. The bill’s sponsor, Loretta Weinberg, introduced the legislation by recounting her own 40-year marriage, an acknowledgement that the union of two gay people has finally come to be accepted by many Americans as being just as beautiful and valid as one of two straight people. Julian Bond, the chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, compared the struggle to the great battles for equality of the past: civil rights, abolition, and women’s suffrage. “Gay rights are civil rights,” Bond said, echoing those who argue that gay rights are a moral imperative on a par with those of women and minorities.

Much remains to be done. The bill’s passage in the full senate is far from assured. But Monday’s victory should cheer all those who recognize this fight for what it is: a clear-cut battle between love and hate, hope and fear, good and evil.