A year or so ago, I spoke with my Mom on the phone after she had voted No on the Wisconsin measure to ban gay marriage through the state's constitution. She voted no, but the state voted yes - the measure passed, and I was disgusted and embarrassed to be a native.
Today, I drove through Downtown San Francisco listening to a special broadcast of "Out In The Bay" on KALW as the sun set, on my way to pick up my husband, feeling like I lived in the greatest place on earth. Our Supreme Court today bravely overturned the constitutional ban on gay marriage - putting this great state once again at the forefront of progress for all people. This is the same state whose supreme court struck down the constitutional ban on interracial marriage in 1948 (while the US court did not vote on thus until 1967).
From the WSJ:
“The right to marry,” Chief Justice George wrote, “represents the right of an individual to establish a legally recognized family with a person of one’s choice and, as such, is of fundamental significance both to society and to the individual.”
Chief Justice George conceded that “as an historical matter in this state marriage has always been restricted to a union between a man and a woman.” But “tradition alone,” he continued, does not justify the denial of a fundamental constitutional right. Bans on interracial marriage were, he wrote, sanctioned by the state for many years.
I'd like to meet this man. He's got it exactly right.
In a society where we see 50% of heterosexual marriages ending in divorce, why do so many people wish to deny the right of marriage, of family, to people who so desperately want it? I do not understand why love would be denied, especially with our country's degrading view and importance of family.
And free means free. Without progression, there is no freedom. I respect the religious population who say that same-sex marriage is forbidden by the book they live by, but considering that this is a country employed on a separation of church and state, those opinions have no weight on this legal point. I'm sorry, National Organization for M
arriage, but YOU are wrong from top to bottom on this one. It's not an issue of religion. This is a matter, like Chief Justice George said, of the right and freedom of every American to legally construct and establish a family, their family. Why would anyone want to take that right, that love, that happiness away?
The aforementioned National Organization for Marriage is a questionable and misleading group who have fought to get a November vote on a Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in California. Let's hope that when this matter is presented to the population of California, they will stand up for the rights our Justices have given today. LGBT people are the minority - those of us who are heterosexual and concerned about freedom and liberty must stand up for their rights now.
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