Equal Rights Are A Constitutional Issue

Those who oppose same-sex marriage in this country would have us believe that marriage has always been as they want it to be. They call it "traditional", but the truth is that there is no real traditional marriage. Marriage has differed in different cultures and in different periods of time. And the idea of same-sex marriage has been both accepted and rejected by differing cultures at different times. There is even some evidence that the early christian church had special rites for, and performed same-sex marriages.

The truth is that just because something was accepted as being correct in the past doesn't mean it always has to be that way. Things can change, and a society can become more enlightened over time. A perfect example of this kind of change is interracial marriage. It hasn't been all that long ago since most people in this country thought it was wrong for Blacks and Whites to marry each other -- and I'm sure many of them could find some kind of Bible verse to support that opinion.

Back in 1958, according to a Gallup Poll, only about 4% of Americans supported marriages between Blacks and Whites. But that was before the country started to face its serious racial problems. In the 1960's a series of civil rights laws were passed, and in 1967 a landmark case (Loving vs.Virginia) was unanimously decided by the Supreme Court, declaring state laws against interracial marriages were unconstitutional -- and attitudes began to change.

Today, about 87% of the public in the U.S. supports the right to marry a person of a different race (see top chart). People consider this to be an equal rights issue (as the Supreme Court did). There are still racial problems in this country (jobs, economics, housing, etc.), but the issue of interracial marriage has been pretty much laid to rest.

Now it is time to do the same for same-sex marriage. The LGBT community should have the same right guaranteed all other Americans -- the right to marry the person of their choice (with all the rights and privileges that accompany marriage). Oddly enough, the attitudes of the public have progressed farther than the Supreme Court on this issue. While the court decision in 1967 sparked a change in public attitude on interracial marriage, the opposite is true of same-sex marriage. A majority of Americans now support same-sex marriage (see bottom chart above), but the court has been too timid to approach the issue as a constitutional guarantee of equal rights.

It is time for this to be rectified. It is silly for this to be an issue that must be fought out in each state. While there are issues that each state should decide on its own, equal rights is not one of those issues. No American should be denied equal rights because they happen to live in a backward state ruled by fundamentalists. The Constitution guarantees that all citizens have equal rights under the law -- and it is time for both the Supreme Court and the Congress to recognize that and address it.