This is Progress, an entry originally posted on February 20, 2004 in the blog nebulose.net. In chronological order, before this was How-To. After this comes Grey Tuesday. If you're lost, I recommend the about page.

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Progress

The ongoing struggle to secure the right to marry the partner of your choice, regardless of their sex or sexual orientation, has clear parallels to the battle to end race discrimination in marriage. Just as people defending interracial marriage bans invoked “divine law”, “immorality” and “unnatural unions” as arguments against ending discrimination, so do the opponents of civil marriage for same-sex couples. While there are differences between the two issues, there are also profound and inescapable similarities.

Forty U.S. states, including Massachusetts, once prohibited marrying someone of the “wrong” race, no matter how much you loved them. Social prejudice accomplished much the same result in other states. Marriages between whites and persons of color were decried as “immoral” and “unnatural.” Polls showed that overwhelming numbers of Americans agreed. Massachusetts forbade interracial marriage as early as 1705, a restriction which was ultimately changed in 1843 after a three year campaign in the legislature. The legislature understood that withholding marriage based on race was an affront to human dignity and denied our basic guarantees of equality.

Despite the public opposition to interracial marriage, in 1948, the California Supreme Court became the first state high court to declare a ban on interracial marriage unconstitutional. In Perez v. Sharp the Court stated that:

“A member of any of these races may find himself barred from marrying the person of his choice and that person to him may be irreplaceable. Human beings are bereft of worth and dignity by a doctrine that would make them as interchangeable as trains.”

The decision was controversial, courageous and correct. At that time, 38 states still forbade interracial marriage, and 6 did so by state constitutional provision.

Then, in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the remaining interracial marriage laws nation-wide. A Virginia judge had upheld that state’s ban on interracial marriages, invoking God’s intention to separate the races. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned his decision, declaring that:

Excerpt from “Marriage - A History of Change”. Follow today’s “noteworthy links” to see some of the progress being made.

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Comments

Clearly those of us who discover intimate emotional relationships with individuals of our own gender are evil. You are either with us or against us in this battle to protect the sanctity of marriage!

Of course, the economic and psychological damage to the growing number of couples who find themselves persecuted for the very nature of their existence should just be entirely disregarded.

F*** the right and their need to uphold meaningless ancient laws. Religion has caused far more suffering than true love can ever hope to mend. Let me love and lay with whoever I want.

Posted by adam at February 20, 2004 8:22 PM :: Link

::nods::

finally, people who actually know what they’re talking about.

i completly agree with the above statements.

Posted by Liz at February 21, 2004 9:13 AM :: Link

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