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Marriage 2.0
“YouTube and Google are proud to celebrate marriage equality” proclaimed the mighty Google search page yesterday. At the rate things are going, June 26 will wind up being a national holiday in the future.
Yesterday’s decision didn’t just extend the legal rights and privileges of marriage to same-sex partners; civil unions began that process a while ago. Yesterday redefined state-sanctioned marriage itself. It’s more than marriage “equality.” This is marriage expansion.
“Marriage equality” was an advertising slogan, a finesse to fit marriage within the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. Marriage is a fundamental liberty. Everyone gets equal liberties. Just as Loving v. Virginia made interracial marriage legal in all states, Obergefell does it for same-sex couples.
In hindsight, state laws against interracial marriage are viewed as a clear form of barbarism from a bygone era. Richard Loving, a white gentleman, and Mildred Jeter, a black lady, were married in Virginia in 1958, and subsequently charged, found guilty, and sentenced to a year in jail. On June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court decided 9-0 that the Loving marriage was no crime. “Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State” wrote Chief Justice Earl Warren.
Will the 5-4 Obergefell decision seem as sensible as the 9-0 decision in Loving when it has stood the same test of time – almost 50 years?
Obergefell is, of course, different from Loving. The 14th Amendment was about establishing equal rights and protections, especially between the races, in the context of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. Loving ended part of a pattern of racial discrimination dating back to the age of slavery. It’s precisely the sort of thing the Due Process Clause should prevent. Obergefell breaks a pattern of many more years: the definition of the institution of marriage itself. That’s some heavy legal lifting. I’ll leave it to Ricochet’s crack legal team to explain whether the Court just gave itself a hernia.
The pieces of marriage expansion that interest me most are (a) the broad enthusiasm for marriage among gays, a “conservative” lifestyle turn; (b) the unseemly hook-up between the SSM movement and the political Left; and (c) the ongoing decline of religious doctrine’s influence over secular law. These are in part media-created phenomena, and ongoing media narratives.
If there is opposition to SSM in the gay community, you don’t hear much about it in the media. Single partner domesticity wasn’t always the lifestyle of choice among openly gay men. AIDS changed that. Virtues like commitment, fidelity, and love became a way of life for millions of gay men over the last 35 years. Health, happiness, and monogamous (or “monogamish”) relationships are major upgrades over the earlier scene and its consequences. Conservatives should consider welcoming this change, or in the least standing aside rather than athwart.
Conservatives should also be celebrating the end of the same-sex marriage movement. They won, and now they no longer need the brutish tacticians of the political Left as allies. Republicans nationwide shouldn’t hesitate to do what the California GOP has already done: sanction and recognize Log Cabin Republicans as fully enfranchised members of our political coalition. We should do this quickly, publicly, and enthusiastically. Gays and lesbians are often adept capitalists and creative leaders. Welcome home to the political party that will protect your hard-earned dual incomes, and that desperately needs your creativity!
Note that Catholics on the Supreme Court voted 4-2 against the Court’s finding in Obergefell. The secular power of the Catholic Church has been in decline for centuries, and that continues. I respect Justices Alito, Thomas, Scalia and, okay, Roberts enough to presume that their call in this case was made strictly on the basis of law and not their religious beliefs. That is as it should be. It is even clearer that Justices Kennedy and Sotomayor, who voted the other way, did not have their interpretation of the Constitution determined by religious dictates.
As for Archbishop Kurtz, his opinion that “it is profoundly immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage” is a bold graffiti on the “wall of separation” between Church and State, a wall that now stands taller and stronger. When the Pope arrives in a few months to address Congress, it will be interesting to hear whether he stirs this pot along with his focus on climate change and wealth redistribution.
My hope is that, however much hue and cry those on the losing side of yesterday’s ruling make, the victors will, in the words of radio host Doug McIntyre “be gracious in victory. Don’t sue churches who won’t perform marriages, don’t go after bakeries. Tolerance goes both ways.”
Published in General
I would be interested to see your reference, too, but it appears that you are not actually providing one.
It’s easy to feel with Ricochet SSM threads that everything has been asked and answered, but it’s surprising how often small bits of progress can be made. When AIG asked earlier what the conservative argument against SSM was, for instance, I responded with the conservative argument that I personally believe to be strongest, even though you will surely agree that many answers have been given in the past.
It’s an emotional subject for many, which only makes it more important to make the effort to treat each other respectfully in discussing it.
I’ll put that down as “still unanswered.
And, once again, my question to you is: Do you believe this prohibition against incestuous homosexual relations (and marriages) should or should not remain in effect, and what are your reason(s) for taking this position?
Don’t worry about the backlog, Gary. I have a short attention span. If someone could just answer my current question, I’d be happy. You know, the one about whether or not homosexual incest should be legalized and your reasons for taking your position.
I will answer your question, if you will answer it first. Depending on your answer, it may be that there is no common ground for discussion, but I will try. Do you believe that the prohibition against incestuous sexual relations between homosexuals (and other non-fertile parties) should remain in effect, and why?
No fair! I asked first!
Where in the CoC is that rule written?
Anyway, yes it is fair because I think the question is irrelevant while you think it is important enough to raise. So if I am going to bother to answer, you should do so as well. Besides, maybe I’ll just say I agree with you, and the ever-elusive “common ground” will have been achieved.
It’s just above the provision that all questions need to be answered by the questioner before the person who is asked the question will answer the question that is asked by the questioner.
Irrelevant? I thought you said the question had been asked and answered thousands of times on Ricochet. All I’m asking is that you either point me to the answer you agree with or come up with one of your own.
Why not only should it be permitted, it should be mandatory.
It has been asked and answered, endlessly, and yet we keep getting the same irrelevant questions, over and over. I’ve had it. If you can’t be bothered to state your own position, I see no reason to state mine. My offer stands. I’ll answer the question (again!) if you answer it.
Marriage 2.1
It’s Time to Legalize Polygamy
Larry, had I thought simply asking you a question could be so much fun, I’d have done so long ago. Maybe I’ll catch you on another thread when you’re feeling more voluble and ask it again.
I didn’t mean it was legal—I just meant it doesn’t come up often enough to deserve mention on the basic paperwork.
Actually, this brings up an interesting question in terms of having me—mere clergy—execute this contract (is that the right way to phrase it?) on behalf of the State. Not only was familiarity with the Maine criminal code not part of my ordination requirements, but I do not have access to records that would allow me to check to see whether the affianced are, in fact, first cousins (and therefore must have genetic counseling) or siblings. I’m easy to fool…for all I know, I’ve solemnized all sorts of bad bargains…
What’s terrible is that there are a lot of jokes in Maine about incest (e.g. “Where do Mainers go to meet chicks? Answer: Family reunions!” etc.) sort of like West Virginia, I guess, and other places with poor people.
@Kate. I hope this means my question about legalizing homosexual incest wasn’t silly.
If the thread count reaches 300, can we have a holiday white sale?
Racist!
I’m curious about when you think that the government did not criminalize some same sex relationships between unrelated free men, but did criminalize them between same sex relatives. I’m pretty confident that it wasn’t “recent” in any typical use of the term. In legal terms “time immemorial” means since 1189, which seems like one of the oldest points for recent, unless one means in evolutionary terms, in which case I have no idea what , but is clearly not nearly old enough.
I suspect its mostly because of those jokes that they avoid mention of the topic (a lot of legislation in this field is guided by legislator’s weighing of what would be least embarrassing) but also because they don’t need to. As a minister, without knowing the law, if you discovered that first cousins were hoping to marry, would you not have felt an urge to check? If they were siblings or worse, would you not have felt an urge to check the criminal code? The great thing about incest from this perspective is that the social taboo is so strong that it doesn’t need much legal support for the law to take effect.