Why same-sex marriage isn't for the majority, or the states, to decide
A pop quiz this Friday: How many advances in U.S. civil rights came about because a majority voted for them? How many happened because states were allowed to decide for themselves? And how many -- if any -- came about because of constitutional amendments? And a special bonus question that I can't answer, but maybe you can: why aren't any journalists asking or answering those same questions?
Let's look at that another way: did a majority of voters in either the U.S. or Alabama decide that
Rosa Parks should be allowed to sit in the front of the bus if she wanted? Or did that happen because Alabama was allowed to segregate public transit within its borders, without interference from the federal government? Did
separate schools for white students and black students become extinct because of a referendum? Did couples of not only different genders, but different races, win the right to marry because their neighbors went to the polls and declared it OK?
Even in a democracy, the majority doesn't always get to decide. And rights issues are usually decided not by opinion polls or referenda, but by courts. Anybody with a high-school diploma ought to know that. But when politicians are interviewed on the subject of equal marriage rights, a lot of them keep talking about how the voters have to decide whether to allow same-sex marriage. So far, all the reporters just nod silently and then go on to the next interviewee, who generally says something about how it should be up to the states.
Since nobody else is asking this important follow-up question, I will: Sen. Kerry, you say you are opposed to same-sex marriage personally, but you say you believe the states should decide. I hope I'm summarizing your position accurately. Mr. Kerry, as you know, your own wife was born outside the United States, though she has made her home here and contributed a great deal to her adopted country. Are you aware, Mr. Kerry, that currently only the partners of heterosexuals are allowed to live here? Heterosexuals who don't have partners are even allowed
to import complete strangers and marry them. Do you realize that even if every state in the union allowed same-sex marriages, that would still be the case? Why do you believe such discrimination is appropriate? And Mr. Edwards, Mr. Bush, and all you other candidates, please feel free to answer this question also.
And when you answer that question, gentlemen, please address it not just to me, but to people like my friends Jennifer and Zlata, who live in a small town in the Czech Republic. Jennifer is an aeronautical engineer, and had a great career in her home state of Texas. She met Zlata, a teacher, on an educational exchange, and the two fell in love and have now been together for more than a decade. In order for that to happen, Jennifer had to move to the Czech Republic, because Zlata wasn't allowed to move to the U.S. She might have been able to manage a visa for herself, but Zlata also has three children. Four visas, three of them for children, were out of the question. So Jennifer gave up her career as an engineer and became a teacher of English as a Foreign Language in Zlata's home town, working for less than 10 percent of what she earned in Texas.
Mr. Bush, you've come out in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Do you believe it's right for Jennifer to have to live abroad in order to be with her life partner? Do you believe that if the amendment is adopted, Jennifer will leave Zlata and come home to marry a man? For that matter, do you believe that proposed amendment will cause anyone in a same-sex relationship anywhere to trade their partner for one of the opposite gender?
Those of you who say it should be up to "the majority" and not the courts: why should this civil rights issue be decided differently? Is it because some people don't approve of homosexuality? In 1967, the same year
the Supreme Court threw out anti-miscegenation laws that prohibited mixed-race marriages, the nation was shocked by a movie on that subject:
A year later when
Star Trek's (white) Captain Kirk -- who had already had flings with assorted green- and purple-skinned lady space aliens -- kissed (black) Lt. Uhuru, people freaked out again even though mixed-race marriages had been legal nationwide for a year.
And to those who say it should be up to the states: if the states had that kind of autonomy,
Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, and all the other schools in that state would still be segregated. Which president sent in federal troops to ensure compliance? Republican
Dwight D. Eisenhower. He explained that action to the nation by saying, "There must be no second class citizens in this country."
