Playboy was in the press gallery for the moment, as many of the Democrats on the floor turned to the visitors’ gallery and directed their applause at the activists seated there. Some of those activists had been working to push the Equality Act and its variations into law for decades.

The Equality Act has been a fixture on Capitol Hill since 2015. Congressman David Cicilline of Rhode Island has been working on this bill with a record that illustrates the nothing-will-ever-get-done stereotype of Washington. In both previous sessions of Congress in which Cicilline has introduced the bill, it has died in the committee phase.

Only a handful of states have laws granting protection to members of the LGBT community. In those states that haven’t enshrined that protection into law, it’s legal to discriminate against a person based on their sexual orientation or gender identity—for a landlord to evict a tenant or an employer to fire an employee because they are gay or transgender.

A few days before the vote, Cicilline told Playboy, “there is recent polling that shows that in every single state in America, a majority of Americans believe that there should be protections for the LGBT community. The Equality Act is wildly popular with the American people.” He added, “it’s a question of Congress catching up to the rest of the country.”

When asked about the historic vote, which represents his bill coming closer to a law than it ever has before, Cicilline told me “I think it’s embarrassing frankly, that it has taken us this long to pass this.”

The poll most frequently cited was conducted by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute and released in late March. They found that “Sixty-nine percent of Americans favor laws that would protect LGBT people from discrimination in the job market, public accommodations, and housing,” which was the purpose of the Equality Act. Support for those protections also found common ground in younger Americans, who were 17 percent more likely to say they believed in such protections.

Several religious organizations came out against the Equality Act on grounds that it would impede on religious freedoms. Documents provided to Playboy showed that a number of those groups, including the Church of Latter Day Saints and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sent memos to members of Congress, opposing the bill.

But those efforts weren’t enough to influence the vote and eight Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with the Democrats. Among them, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York who, when elected, was the youngest member of the House at 30 years old.

When passing their bills, members of Congress often lean on some symbolism that ties their legislation into history. For the Equality Act, that was the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which will be marked in a few weeks, in late June. But the passage of the bill was an historic moment itself and one that will be remembered and referenced.

During the debate on the floor, just moments before the bill was passed, Rep. Katie Hill (D-Cali.) said that Republicans were “on the wrong side of history, and we are waiting for them on the other side.” If the polling is right, then so is Katie Hill—with such widespread support for these protections and that support boosted among younger Americans, the Equality Act is much more than a heartbeat in history. Instead, the House’s passage of the Equality Act is a marker in the struggle for equality. There have been moments like this before and there will be moments like it again.

But the odds are slanted against the Equality Act becoming law during this session of Congress. Mitch McConnell has been vocal about his opposition to Democrats’ bills, calling himself the “Grim Reaper” of some of their policies. Usually politicians insist they’re getting things done on Capitol Hill, McConnell takes pride that he isn’t.

And yet this is no new territory for Cicilline, even though it may be a new territory for the country. The Rhode Island lawmaker has been pushing for this bill for over half a decade, if it doesn’t make it through Congress this year, Cicilline will almost certainly push it in the next session. If he’s not there to do that then some other member of the body will undoubtedly carry his torch.