Mixed Results in National Same-Sex Marriage State Ballot Initiatives, but Supporters Energized to Continue Fight for Equality

But my neighbor summed it up perfectly: it will always be more important to those fighting for their own lives, due process and equal protection in society than those looking to suppress others to raise their own standing. While Americans have institutionalized terrible injustices for so many groups and associations of people at different points in history, ultimately America stands for equality.

As President-Elect Barack Obama makes history as the first African-American to be elected President, it would serve people well to remember, it was only in 1967 that the Supreme Court passed Loving v. Virginia, overturning all state bans on interracial marriage. When his interracial parents met in 1960, about half the states had anti-miscegenation laws or bans on inter-racial marriage. They were most always justified as supporting unbending tradition as supported in the Bible.

"...moral or social equality between the different races...does not in fact exist, and never can. The God of nature made it otherwise, and no human law can produce it, and no human tribunal can enforce it. There are gradations and classes throughout the universe. From the tallest archangel in Heaven, down to the meanest reptile on earth, moral and social inequalities exist, and must continue to exist throughout all eternity."

Georgia Supreme Court Ruling Supporting Ban on Inter-Racial Marriage (1869)

"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races show that he did not intend for the races to mix."

Virginia State Court, 1959

Before she died in 2007, on the 40th anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia decision, she issued the following statement:

"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 (1939-2008)

The struggle for justice and equality is often long and arduous, but President-Elect Barack Obama's election proves dreams can become reality and the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice.

As a post script, while Florida did narrowly pass a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, the electorate refused to change a clause in the Florida Constitution called the Alien Land Law which was written to prevent Asian-Americans from owning land. It was declared Unconstitutional in 1948 because it violates the US Constitution's Equal Protection clause and is not enforced as a result.

Discrimination

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