I am deeply disappointed by the failure of California voters to shoot down Proposition 8. I mean, I don’t live in California — why the fuck should I care? Well, because I do, and because a lot of people had their eyes on California’s Proposition 8, and what it would mean for the civil rights fight of our time: equality and full legal protection for gay Americans.
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You want to know what “judicial activism” is? It’s a code-word for when one group finds the legislation it has been pushed for overturned by the judiciary. And, yet, that’s the role of our branches of government — the judiciary is a check on the power of the legislative branch, with the determination of what laws are constitutional (legal) and which laws are unconstitutional (illegal). I’ll grant you that these courts don’t always make what I feel is the right decision, and I’ll grant you that they’re not “perfect” institutions and can be swayed due to external considerations.
Here’s a text book case of judicial activism: Brown v Board of Education, which determined that Kansas’ segregationist laws were illegal under the United States Constitution. From this ruling came this truth: facilities which are separate are inherently unequal.
I’d like to take a step back to talk, briefly, about my own views of gay marriage. For a long time, I’ve viewed this as a simple matter of the exercise of religious freedom. Granted, there are many religious organizations strictly dedicated to a “traditional” ideal of marriage, but there are many groups which do not hold to those beliefs: and whether you’re talking about a liberal-minded church willing to marry two men, or an orthodox Mormon or Muslim group willing to engage in polygamy, a country like the United States, with her founding roots in the search for the freedom to practice one’s own religion as one sees fit, should make sure to stand out of the way of these practices.
For a very long time, I felt the best answer was for the state governments to refuse to recognize any marriages. Rather, recognize civil unions, which would have the benefit of allowing churches and church congregations to determine who they married, while the government’s only responsibility was in ensuring legal protections over such unions, without passing judgement on which were or were not “valid.” I felt this was a fair and reasonable compromise, but my opinions have been shifting, in no small part due to this YouTube video of San Diego’s Mayor Sanders explaining why he’d made the decision to support gay marriage over civil unions: “Two years ago, I believed civil unions were a fair alternative. Those beliefs, in my case, have changed. The concept of a separate but equal institution is not something I can support.”
It seems unlikely that any state government, much less all fifty of them, will decide to adopt my plan. Therefore, civil unions, while a good start, are simply not good enough. Marriage for homosexual couples needs to be the law. Yes, the world isn’t fair, and yes, the United States isn’t fair. Our country is chock full of examples of acts of persecution to minority groups: slavery, segregation and Jim Crow laws, the internment of Japanese-American in relocation camps, need I go on? In time, all of these past horrors have been refuted: George H.W. Bush apologized to the Japanese interned, and most famously, this very week, our nation elected its first African-American to the office of the President of the United States.
I know that a lot of people have trouble wrapping their minds around the concept of gay marriage. They usually talk about the next step being men marrying trash dumpsters or something. At some point they usually reference the threat to their own marriage, but I’ll let Barbara Boxer make that point (er, even though I’m not, y’know, married).
I think gay marriage is the civil rights question of our time. I also think that it is inevitable. Oh, you can delay it, you can slow it down, but it’s coming. I hear stories of what people think gay marriage will mean: particularly ludicrous imaginations seem to envision armed Federal troops compelling some right-wing minister to marry a leering gay couple at gunpoint. I will never advocate for the government telling a church what people they must marry, at the same time, I will not tolerate the government telling a church what people they may not marry, which is what happens now when gay-marriage friendly churches marry a couple whose union can not legally be recognized.
If you value freedom, if you value the freedom of people to make choices that you might not agree with, choices that you would never advocate, this is a cause for you. If you’re one of those people who will disagree vehemently with your neighbors over politics, but know in your heart of heart that you would fight for their right to express their disagreement, then you know what side you need to be on. This isn’t an issue for the left, the posted YouTube video above proved that. This is an issue for all Americans who truly value the unique characteristics which make up our mixing bowl of a nation.
I’m a proud supporter of the right of the American people to follow their pursuit of happiness, and to do so right into the marriage bed, regardless of their sexual preferences. Support of gay marriage is support of freedom of choice. It really is as absolutely simple as that.
Do you want to do something about it? Some friends of mine, upset by the outcome of the vote, are organizing a grass-roots pro-gay marriage movement in California. If you see what we see, if you feel as we feel, and if you would seek, as we seek, then I ask you to please, please, take a stand for freedom and equality.
