Rob Reiner's compassion extended far beyond what he represented on film. In the days since the legendary Hollywood director's tragic death alongside wife Michele Singer Reiner, we'd like to take a moment to recognize the mountains he moved to pave the way for the legalization of gay marriage. Related: Zooey Deschanel's 'Heart Is Broken' Over Death Of New Girl Dad Rob Reiner While the Stand By Me director boasted an impressive and decades-spanning career in Hollywood, he and his wife also spent years behind the scenes as activists fighting for several causes, including civil rights issues like gay marriage. In 2008, California made the mind-boggling decision to pass Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage. The very same year, Rob co-founded the American Foundation for Equal Rights, a nonprofit famous for sponsoring the fight against Proposition 8. It even led to a 2010 trial which preceded Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, the monumental trial which legalized gay marriage at the federal level. At the time, Rob compared the battle to Brown v. The Board of Education, which ruled separate is not equal. He said in 2011: "We don't believe in separate but equal in any other legal position except this. We feel that this is the last piece of the civil rights puzzle being put into place." Following the monumental ruling in 2015, Rob wrote an op-ed for Variety about the "long process" to legalizing gay marriage: "When I started speaking out about this, I said, 'Forty years from now, we'll look back on this the same way we do on women having the right to vote or on African-Americans having civil rights.' It will be kind of quaint. People will wonder what all the fuss was about. Each one of these steps makes us more one country, and reminds us we are all part of the family of man." What an incredible man! Hear more about his and Michele's fight (below): @dwarfismhistory rob & michele reiner ???? rest in peace ♬ original sound - Dwarfism History Reaction, Perezcious readers? To learn more about advocacy for LGBTQ+ community, check out https://www.glaad.org/. [Images via Rob Rich/WENN] The post How Rob Reiner Was Instrumental In Gay Marriage Legalization appeared first on Perez Hilton.