This comment was from NickMostly in reply to AnonymousDog on the post Are Marriage Rights Civil Rights?
Don’t forget that there must be at minimum a rational basis for any law that discriminates against a class. In general a person who has reached majority age is not prohibited from associating and entering into a contract with another individual and the 5th and 14th amendments protect individuals from being discriminated against by the law – both state and federal.
There is no rational basis test that can not apply equally to heterosexual couples as it does to homosexual couples. The only purpose the state has in restricting marriage — and the rights and protections it bestows — to heterosexuals is to preserve “traditional marriage.” Of course, there is no such thing, as marriage has been redefined by each successive generation.
The discrimination you fail to see is that the marriage contract is restricted by sex without any rational basis for doing so. Sex is not the same as number; there is a difference between saying “any two people of majority age may enter into this contract” and “any two differently sexed people of majority age may enter into this contract.” I believe this latter restriction is similar in tone and tenor to “any two people of majority age and the same race may enter into this contract.
So the challenge for opponents of marriage between two people of the same sex is to come up with reason that will withstand a rational basis test that won’t also disqualify some heterosexual couples from being married. I don’t believe a defensible purpose exists.
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photo: pinterest
About the Editors
It never ceases to amaze me how unfree the “Land of the Free” is and how whenever that fact that this is or that practice results in a lack of freedom or unjustifiable restraint on freedom, how reluctant Americans are to correct that injustice. To wit, slavery and civil rights for non whites. It continues to this day.
That shining city on the hill spoken of in American mythology, from all appearances, probably won’t be in America.
Weird isn’t it?
And yet, America is still fairly inspiring. Just not anywhere I’d want to live. Especially the south. Did you folks see that bit on Sheriff Arpiao in Arizona (see here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/us/justice-department-sues-arizona-sheriff-joe-arpaio.html) .
Utterly disgraceful…
Anyways, I’m stop my commentary now lest it appear that I focus too much on the “bad” stuff in America. Instead of say, their free market system… Or something. Voter rights? Eh… Well you’ve got great football and amazing basketball teams. Also, very inventive with the Internet. That stuff is the bomb. And Intel, and the space program and so on and so on. But treating people decently, well, let’s just say that’s not America’s strongest suit.
The Wet One
I think the entire legal notion of marriage needs to be trashed. We need to simply go to civil unions based on civil/contract law, period.
I know there are huge consequences such as health insurance etc, But, it is time to junk this whole legal marriage thing. Why should two grown ass adults need permission from the state to do anything? Seriously. Why do I need to even obtain a marriage license?
So much of what exist is based on tradition largely rooted in religion. Same sex marriage is a civil right. However, the struggle by African Americans was not just a struggle for constitutional rights but human rights as well. As a Black man, I simply cannot put our struggle on the same moral ground as that of gays for equal protection…..I believe the struggle by Blacks was for human rights and holds the moral high ground.
Hence, gay people should be allowed to marry just as we heterosexuals. But we need to make everything a civil union and do away with legal marriage for everyone. This would certainly eliminate a lot of the acrimony associated with divorce. Maybe we can even get rid of “family” courts too!
More of the same here: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2012/05/tracy_thorne_begland_and_the_virginia_house_of_delegates_the_state_legislature_rejects_the_judicial_nomination_of_a_prosecutor_just_because_he_s_gay_.html
Really?
WTF America?
fml. Yeah that’s not really pushing the discussion forward, but that’s my reaction at the moment.