A wrongful death case has turned into a civil-rights battle over the legitimacy of same-sex unions as they cross state lines. A Chicago woman, Alisha Brennon, filed a lawsuit in Indiana seeking damages for the death of her partner, Christina Santiago, when a stage collapsed at the state fair in Indianapolis on Aug. 13, killing seven. The couple entered a civil union in June in Illinois shortly after it became legal. Indiana, however, bans same-sex unions and does not recognize those of other states. Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said the state will seek to dismiss the case.

Under federal law, states can determine their own definition of marriage, but no state is forced to recognize another’s interpretation of the institution. This hasn’t been an issue since the 1940s when interracial marriage was taboo. Until recently, only a couple of small states recognized same-sex marriage. But this summer, New York and Illinois, the third and fifth most populous states respectively, legalized forms of same-sex unions. An additional 32 million people now live under the umbrella of equality, and it isn’t surprising that an issue of legality has already sprung up.

Recent polls show that for the first time ever, a majority of Americans support same-sex marriage. Of course, legalization for the entire country will be an uphill fight that will take time. But as more states crawl out of the Stone Age and give all their citizens equal rights, this situation will occur repeatedly, causing the patchwork of state laws to be challenged.

The progress toward equal rights is a long battle. Full equality for African–Americans didn’t occur overnight—it took more than 100 years after the end of slavery. Women couldn’t vote until nearly 150 years after Thomas Jefferson wrote, “All men are created equal.”

To the lawmakers in Indiana and other states that have fought for bans on same-sex unions, a history lesson might do some good. The LGBT community will gain its equality—it’s only a matter of time. It’s time to save face and not be named in books as bigots who fought against civil rights. You don’t want to be on the losing side, dragging the nation back to the past.

Hopefully the fight for LGBT rights, which most Americans take for granted, won’t take a century. While we wait for the day that anyone from Hawaii to Maine can enjoy these rights, the U.S. needs to put into place legislation that in a federal court, any state’s marriage is deemed equal. Indiana doesn’t need to legalize same-sex marriage, but it should acknowledge that its neighbor does. In a federal system, bigotry can sadly be tolerated but not enforced.