The Issues:
Marriage Equality
History of marriage discrimination and the constitution
One of our most fundamental rights as citizens of the United States of America is the ability to marry, and the ability to marry the person of our choice. Courts in this country have determined that the right to marry is, in some cases, more fundamental than the right to vote. See for yourself:
"This Court has long recognized that freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage and family life is one of the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment." (US Supreme Court: Cleveland Board of Education v. LeFleur, 1974)
"The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men." (US Supreme Court: Loving v. Virginia, 1967)
Because the ability to marry the person of one's choice is a fundamental civil right, some have sought to change constitutions to take away this right.
In general, there are only two precedents in the history of the United States for changing a constitution to exclude people's rights. They include Prohibition and interracial marriage bans.
In 1911 Rep. Seaborn Roddenberry of Georgia introduced a U.S. constitutional amendment to ban interracial marriage. In his appeal to Congress, Roddenberry stated that:
"Intermarriage between whites and blacks is repulsive and averse to every sentiment of pure American spirit. It is abhorrent and repugnant. It is subversive to social peace. It is destructive of moral supremacy."
Thankfully, all attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban interracial marriage failed.
We were not as fortunate with state-level interracial marriage bans. In 1948, the California State Supreme Court became the first in the country to strike down its interracial marriage ban. At that time, the number of people who opposed marriage for interracial couples was alarmingly high. In fact, if we compare polling attitudes, we see that far more people opposed interracial marriage in 1948 (95%), and for decades to follow, than the number of people who opposed same-sex marriage in 2003 (when Massachusetts' Supreme Court issued its ruling in favor of same-sex marriage).
Public opinion was against Americans' right to marry the person of our choice if our spouse's race was different than our own, and many states changed their constitutions to protest the 1948 California ruling, lest "activist judges" do the same in their own states. They declared marriage as the union of "two white people, two Mongolians or two Negroes," claiming such definitions weren't discriminatory because people of color could still marry each other, and whites could still marry whites. Even as late as 1958, polls reported more than 95 percent of whites still disapproved of marriages between blacks and whites. "Let the people vote," proponents clamored. Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee were among the states that let the majority decide for the minority, thus enshrining discrimination into the state constitutions for decades.
Until a Baltimore Circuit Court ruling in 1957, there was a criminal prohibition on interracial marriages; the then-societal notion of "traditional marriage" did not include allowing people of different races to marry.
In 1967, the interracial marriage bans still on the books in a number of states were finally struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia. The Lovings were an interracial Virginia couple that had married in Washington, D.C., then returned to Virginia, where their marriage was illegal. They were arrested and convicted to a year in jail. The trial judge suspended the sentence for a period of 25 years on the condition that the Lovings leave the state and not return for 25 years. When sentencing them, the Virginia judge stated that: "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 shows that He did not intend for the races to mix."
In November 2000, after a statewide vote in a special election, Alabama became the last state to formally overturn a provision in their constitution that banned interracial marriage. The state held onto the provision for 33 years after the Supreme Court declared anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional. Forty percent of Alabamans voted to keep the ban.
A Baltimore Circuit Court has determined that the Maryland Constitution is being violated every time a same-sex couple is forced to remain legal strangers in the eyes of the law. Sadly, the irrational fear of granting legal parity to the relationships of same-sex couples is so great that some seek to amend this group of people – and their children – right out of our constitution and say that its provisions of equal protection do not apply. The Maryland constitution has been amended 217 times, but never, ever to limit rights. Every single amendment has been for expanding and clarifying rights.
Quite simply, changing a constitution to "define marriage" is telling gays and lesbians that the provisions of equality in the constitution apply to everyone but them.
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