Gay Marriage, Don’t be on the Wrong Side of History
Today, North Carolina became the 30th state in the supposedly most exceptional and most free country in the world to ban marriage for same-sex partners.
The fact is that America has been here before; in the early 1960’s 41 states had laws banning marriage between races. In 1967, 16 states still had these laws on the books. I’m sure that the people in those former 41 states truly believed they were right and that God was on their side in prohibiting inter-racial marriage. That in fact they were protecting traditional marriage as it was intended to be, that marriage should only be between two people of the same race as it would be unnatural for marriage to occur between races.
Today, except for an attempt by a church in KY recently, people generally see the stupidity of the idea that two people of different races shouldn’t be allowed to be married. Oh, I’m sure some racist bastards out there still believe this, but generally society has come to realize this prohibition was absurd. Like people often say, hindsight is 20/20.
My hope for you today is for you to realize that five, or ten, or twenty years from now people will think the same damn thing about the opposition to same-sex marriage and the ridiculous argument that gay marriage somehow threatens the validity of a marriage for heterosexual couples anywhere. That somehow allowing same-sex couples to marry will lead to people marrying animals or inanimate objects, this is just ridiculous. I don’t want you to have to lie in the future when your grandkids ask you what side of this issue you were on. I want you to proudly look at them and say I supported gay marriage because it was the right thing to do, because two people who love each other should always have had that right.
I leave you with the words of Mildred Loving, the wife in the case that helped eradicate the idiocy, the injustice of the ban against interracial marriage.
“My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.”
“Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the ‘wrong kind of person’ for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.”
“I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.”
Mildred Loving died in May of 2008.
