There’s been a lot of news lately
about the possible repeal of DOMA, and promoting marriage equality for
everyone. I’m just going to touch a little on my thoughts about this tonight
before leaving you with a paper I wrote back in 2010. Yeah, it is a few years
old but the points I make are still just as valid now as they were back in
2010.
When I look at what is happening
for marriage equality, how many states have passed agendas supporting marriage
equality it’s hard for me not to wipe tears of joy from my eyes. Being a
transman, eventually I would be able to get married to my fiancé (who is
female) without too many problems, but for many couples out there without
marriage equality, that would never happen.
Our brothers and sisters would be denied equal rights and protections
under the law merely because their sexual preference is not considered the “norm”
in the United States, or even the world.
We still have a long way to go, especially in states like the one I’m living in right now, Arkansas. It is my hope though, that people will continue to wake up, and realize that discriminating against someone FOR ANY REASON, is wrong and hurts our society. I don’t want to get into a rant about
discrimination tonight though; I’ll save that for later.
Cause and Effect: The Ban on Gay Marriage
The ban on same sex marriage not only hurts our society by preventing families in the GBLTQ (Gay, Bi-sexual, Lesbian, Transgender, and Queer) community from caring for one another as any heterosexual family does, but also pardons discrimination against homosexuals. Gay and lesbian couples rarely have family insurance plans which would help with the care of the spouses, and children if they were present; and in most cases find it extremely difficult to receive any kind of joint governmental resources or assistance based on family units. This is mostly due to the ban on same sex marriage and the laws set into place that openly discriminate against the homosexual community. If we, as a country continue to refuse couples the right to marry based on sexual preference we are disregarding equal rights and forgiving our government for singling out a minority of our citizens.
In 1993 the
freedom to marry movement was set into action by the monumental decision of the
Hawaiian courts that stated that putting restrictions on who a person can marry
is considered as discrimination. In 1996 The United States Congress went
so far as to condone discrimination against members of the GBLTQ community as to
pass the Defense of Marriage Act, which states:
‘No state,
territory or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be
required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of
any other state, territory, possession or tribe respecting persons of the same
sex that is treated as a marriage under laws of such other state, territory,
possession, or tribe or a right or claim arising from such
relationship.’ (Bill Text - 104th Congress (1995-1996) - THOMAS (Library
of Congress))
This law
placed the right to allow or deny same sex couples the fundamental freedom of
marriage in the courts of the individual states. Not only does the
Defense of Marriage Act legally excuse the discrimination of same sex couples
by allowing states to put into place bans against the marriage of like genders,
but also nullifies the Full Faith and Credit Clause established in Article IV
Section I and II of the United States Constitution: Full faith and credit shall
be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceeding of
every other state; And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in
which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect
thereof. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and
immunities of citizens in the several states. (Article IV|LII Legal
Information Institute).
Several
years later in 1999 after the state amended its constitution the Hawaiian
courts ruled that the state no longer protected lesbian and gay individual’s
rights to marry. Since that ruling, members of the GBLTQ community and their
allies have been fighting for equality in regards to the right to marry.
No state
shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities
of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws (U.S.
Constitution: Fourteenth Amendment). The 14th amendment passed on
July 9, 1868 assures the citizens of the United States that laws will not be
put into effect that alter or restrict an individual’s rights.
“Marriage is
one of the ‘basic civil rights of man,’ fundamental to our very existence and
survival. To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the
racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly
subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth
Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due
process of law,” these are the words Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in his
decision during the 1967 Supreme Court case, Loving vs. Virginia, that ruled
bans on interracial marriage were a violation of the United States Constitution
(Loving vs. Virginia). If denying citizens the right to marry based on race is
deemed unconstitutional, than why isn’t then denial of marriage based on sexual
preference the same?
Jonathan
Rauch, a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, and a senior writer and
columnist for the National Journal, wrote on marriage in his 2004 book Gay
Marriage: Why it is good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America:
“Marriage is not merely a contract between two people. It is a contract between two people and their community. When two people approach the altar or the bench to marry, they approach not only the presiding official but all of society. They enter into a compact not just with each other but with the world, and that compact says: “We, the two of us, pledge to make a home together, care for one another, and, perhaps, raise children together (Rauch, Gay Marriage).”
Whether
socio-cultural or religious based, the arguments mounting against gay marriage
never give a plausible reason for the ban without violating amendments to the
constitution. In addition to disregarding Constitutional Amendments, the
political leaders are casting aside the ideals that the founding fathers of the
United States set forth when the country was first created in 1776 with the
Declaration of Independence. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness (Declaration of Independence - Transcript).
Procreation
and the continuance of the human race is a common argument against the marriage
of lesbian and gay couples. The fact that this argument is completely
irrational is evident in the amount of heterosexual couples that either, cannot
reproduce, due to genetic malformations or medical procedures that inhibit
reproduction, or have chosen not to and yet are still permitted to marry.
Also
anyone of legal age can purchase contraceptives from drugstores nation-wide,
and in some cases even the ‘morning after pill’ both of which greatly reduce
the chance of conception. Abortion, a process in which a pregnant woman can
abort an unborn fetus during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy, is
also legal in all 50 states; this process as well denies procreation.
Fundamentalist
have even gone as far as saying same sex couples should not be allowed the
basic right of marriage because it (heterosexual marriage) is essential for
raising children in today’s society, yet there are only five states that openly
have bans on homosexual individuals from adopting (Judith E.
Beckett). Of the children adopted in the United States, 65,500 live with
lesbian or gay parents. As of 2005, an estimated 270,313 of the United
States children were living in households with same sex partners as the head of
household (The Williams Institute - UCLA School of Law).
“Too
many single-parent families, as many studies have shown, bring up kids who as
adults do markedly less well on average in school, career, and marriage than
those who grew up in intact two-parent families. As for children of
never-married mothers: many of them make up the permanent underclass, and their
high rates of crime, school failure, and welfare dependency are everything that
the Founders expected the republican family to prevent,” said Kay Hymowitz in
her 2004 article in the City Journal (Hymowitz).
“Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or
the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government
for a redress of grievances.” (First Amendment - US Constitution). It was
this first amendment, the beginning of the Bill of Rights in the constitution
that gave the people the right to choose a religion of preference, as well as
the absence of religion. The arguments supporting the ban on the marriage of
lesbian and gay couples with religious biases are in clear violation of this
amendment. While one may not agree with homosexuality due to religious reasons,
this does not give them the right to discriminate against others, denying a
minority of the United States citizens the right to marry on such a trivial
basis as sexual preference.
While legislations have crossed several states allowing the right of civil unions to same sex couples, it is still sending the message the homosexuals citizens are ‘equal’ but separate, an issue among the African American community that led to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Marriage, rather than civil union, among homosexual couples will only afford the couple the same assistance in providing for each other that married heterosexual couples already have.
“In exchange
for the care-giving commitment we are making, you, our community, will
recognize us not only as individuals but as a bonded pair, a family, granting
us a special autonomy and a special status which only marriage conveys. We, the
couple, will support one another. You, society, will support us. You expect us
to be there for each other and will help us meet those expectations. We will do
our best, until death do us part (Rauch, Gay Marriage).”
The United
States government was founded on the ideals that every man is equal, yet every
minority in this country; whether based on race, origins, or sexual preference,
have to fight for equality. America was made to be the land of the free
and home of the brave, however will remain in the chains of discrimination
until we can put our differences aside and realize we are all human beings.
Works Cited
"Article IV|LII Legal Information
Institute." Cornell University Law School. 18 November 2010
<http://topics.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleiv>.
"Bill
Text - 104th Congress (1995-1996) - THOMAS (Library of Congress)." 1996. The
Library of Congress - THOMAS. 18 November 2010
<http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c104:H.R.3396.ENR:>.
"Declaration
of Independence - Transcript." The National Archives. 26 November
2010 <http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html>.
"First
Amendment - US Constitution." FindLaw.com. 27 September 2010
<http://public.findlaw.com/constitution-day/first-amendment-us-constitution.html>.
Hymowitz,
Kay S. "Gay Marriage vs. American Marriage." City Journal
(2004).
Judith E.
Beckett, R.N. The Rainbow Babies: Adoption Choices for Lesbian & Gay
Couples. 23 May 2007. 01 December 2010
<http://www.therainbowbabies.com/AdoptionChoices.html>.
Loving vs.
Virginia. The US Supreme Court. April- June 1967.
Rauch,
Jonathan. Gay Marriage. New York: Times Books Henry Holt and Company,
2004.
—. Gay
Marriage. n.d.
The Williams
Institute - UCLA School of Law. Census Snapshot - The United States. Los
Angeles: UCLA, 2007.
"U.S.
Constitution: Fourteenth Amendment." FindLaw.com.
<http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment14>.
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I struggle to sing any “high” notes. ( I love singing) People around me are commenting on how different of a person I have become.