DOMA Ruling 'Just a Start', Clementi Family Says

The Supreme Court's landmark decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act is "just a start," the Clementi family toldNew York Times columnist Frank Bruni on Wednesday.

In a column published Wednesday, the family of the late Tyler Clementi told Bruni they'll never know exactly why the Ridgewood High School graduate jumped off the George Washington Bridge in September of 2010.

Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old Rutgers University student at the time, committed suicide after his college roommate, Dharun Ravi, harassed him over his sexuality and attempted to film Clementi having sex with another man. Clementi had also recently come out as gay to his mother, Jane Clementi, and told a friend he felt she had "abandoned" him. 

In the wake of Tyler's death, the family has since left the evangelical Ridgewood church they had been members of for years. They created The Tyler Clementi Foundation, tasked to promote "safe, inclusive and respectful social environments in homes, schools, campuses, churches and the digital world for vulnerable youth, LGBT youth and their allies."

Jane Clementi told Bruni that the fight for gay equality doesn't just end with people.

“It’s not only people who can intimidate and harass,” she told Bruni at their East Side home in Ridgewood. “It’s institutions. It’s legislation. With laws the way they are, we’re teaching that there’s a group of individuals who are ‘less than’ others.”

She called the Supreme Court's ruling "just a start," but said the trajectory is pointing in the right direction. 

According to the column, Tyler's brother James, who is also gay, said he felt "more included" following the Supreme Court ruling.