9:13 AM — Civil Rights I am in support of gay marriage. You cannot understand how strongly I think it should happen. It's a civil rights issue. Below are some other civil rights issues, who the previous victims were, and the date the reform was adopted in all 50 states. (Note that I don't say "who was affected" because EVERYONE in the US is affected by these issues, not just the victims, and not just the protestors on either side.)

• 1865: Slavery outlawed.


• 1868: Blacks equal protection of the law (in name only).


• 1870: Blacks vote (in name only).


• 1920: Suffrage (white women vote).


• 1960: Busses desegretated.


• 1964: Workplace discrimination outlawed (racial, gender).


• 1965: Blacks vote (further legislation).


• 1967: Miscegenation laws declared unconstitutional (interracial marriage allowed).


• 1972-1982: Equal Rights Amendment approved by Congress, but not the states (complete equality for the sexes, including the draft). Unsuccessfully reintroduced to Congress every subsequent year.


• 1998: Workplace discrimination definition extended to same-sex sexual harassment by the Supreme Court.


• ~2003: Employment Non-Discrimination Act introduced to Congress (ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender expression).


• 2003: Sodomy laws declared unconstitutional (Lawrence vs. Texas).


• 2004: Gay marriage hits the courts.




• MA: State Court rules for gay marriage.


• Sanfrancisco, CA: Mayor declares gay marriage supported by State Constitution and clerks begin marrying homosexual couples.


• New Paltz, NY: Ditto.


• Multnomah County, OR: Ditto.


• George W. Bush: Publically announces support for a Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as being heterosexual only.


• Dick Cheney: Publically announces support for Bush's decision.


• Mary Cheney: Openly lesbian daughter of Dick Cheney; strangely silent.

(dates c/o Wikipedia)

In the anti-miscegenation case, the US Supreme Court stated,

Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.

Saying marriage is only for heterosexuals, but gays should be content with civil unions is like saying the front of the bus is only for whites, but niggers should be content with the back of the bus. The problem in everyone's mind is that civil marriage is inextricably linked with religious marriage in this country. Once we tease apart that difference, perhaps it will be more tolerable to the majority.  ¶ permalink | 0 musings