Thoughts on Prop H8

Picture it. California. Angry marriage rights rallies. Civil rights in limbo.

1967? Hardly. Though it's not hard to imagine what it must have felt like in heyday of the Civil Rights movement. Harder to imagine is that it's not over. Doesn't it seem like it is? Or at least that it should be?

After November 4th it's clear. For those living in caves, or further than 200 feet from any homosexual, three states passed laws barring gay Americans from sharing in the rights and legal protection of marriage. Arkansas went one step further by banning adoptions to 'unmarried' couples, a not-very thinly veiled attack on prospective gay parents.

The ACLU has already filed with the courts. The basic tenant of these lawsuits is that the fate of a minority should never be put into the hands of the majority. In 1967 the supreme court ruled in the case of Loving v. Virginia (On a separate note I think I watched a film by the same title at a video booth in Times Square?) to overturn the earlier decision of Pace v. Alabama and strike down all race-based discrimination in marriage.

One year later a gallup poll was conducted. In that poll, 44% of the African American participants were in favor of interracial marriage. 17% of the whites polled were in favor of it. Given the ethnic makeup of the country in that time period, it works out to roughly 21.4% of the general population that supported extending marriage rights to interracial couples.

NOT A MAJORITY. Yet still it was the right thing to do.

One can hope that the courts will see things in the same light this time around. This is not about freedom of religion or even freedom from religion. It is about a basic right that affects a group of people. A group of Americans.

No matter how anyone wants to spin it, this does not affect straight couples. (Except those that would like to go their gay friends' weddings. And, really, with the food, flowers and music who wouldn't?) No one would be required to marry a member of the same sex. Straight marriage will not be any less special or any more precarious than it is now.

The inevitable (and yes, it is inevitable - you can't stop the beat) legalization of gay marriage will accomplish one thing. It will bring America one step closer to the 'Liberty and Justice For All' that we love to chuck around as though we really mean it. Someday, maybe in my children's lifetime, that claim will be less of an ideal and more of a reality. A boy can dream can't he?

(I said 'Children' even though Ian has made it perfectly clear that we will only be having 1 child. I just thought the word 'Children' fit the phrasing better. Ian, please excuse the editorial license.)