Marriage Is A Civil Right

The right-wing, especially the fundamentalists, want to separate some rights from others. For them, the right to own a firearm is a right that should be extended to all Americans, but they don't believe the same for the right to get married to the person you love. That is a right which they enjoy, but that they would deny to others.

Fifty years ago, they denied the right to marry to people of different races or colors. In the 1967 Loving vs. Virginia decision, the Supreme Court declared that "marriage is a basic civil right", and therefore no state could deny the right to marry to citizens wishing to marry someone they love just because that person might be of a different race or color -- because denying that right to marry was a violation of the United States Constitution.

That was a good decision, and it advanced the cause of equal rights in this country. It does make me wonder though just why it is now such a hard decision for the Supreme Court to uphold their own decision, and extend that same right to marry the person they love to same-sex couples. If the Constitution guarantees all citizens equal rights (which it does), and the court has declared marriage to be a civil right (which it has), then it should be a no-brainer to declare that states cannot deny the right to marry to same-sex couples (because doing so would violate the Constitution).

Julian Bond is right. Gay rights are civil rights. The only way the Supreme Court can deny that is to put their religion or political ideology above the Constitution -- which would be a betrayal of the reason the Supreme Court exists (which is to make sure all laws passed in this country do not violate the Constitution).

All Americans, including those in the LGBT community, should have the same civil rights -- and all should be allowed to marry the person they love.