On November 3rd, voters in Hawaii and Alaska got to vote on whether a minority group of Americans would be entitled to the same civil rights as the majority enjoy. The answer? No.
The minority group in question is homosexuals, and the civil right up for a vote was whether those states should amend their constitutions to reserve marriage for heterosexuals. Since homosexuals only make up about 10 percent of the population, their chances of having the remaining 90 percent standing up for their right to marry whom they choose was nonexistent, yet polls leading up to the vote seemed to indicate the vote would be close. As it turns out, voters lied to pollsters about their intentions to deny other Americans equal rights, perhaps out of shame for what they were about to do. They should be ashamed.
The reason this came to a vote is that judges in these two states had ruled that the states failed to show a compelling reason why same-sex couples should be denied marriage licenses. Rather than show a compelling reason, because there is none, frightened heterosexuals, fueled by big money from the Mainland, sought to change the State constitutions.
Of course this is not new in American history. African-Americans were legally discriminated against for more than a century. Women had to fight just as long to get the right to vote. The arguments that denied those groups the same rights as white males are rooted in the same soil -- hate, fear, prejudice, and Christian Extremism. How often were bible verses quoted to legitimize slave-owners keeping people in bondage? Or women from exercising their right to participate in the government of their own country?
A friend of mine was genuinely puzzled by the fact that gays and lesbians would want to marry, because marriage is about family and for procreation, she said. Is it? When I married in 1974, my husband and I had no intention of ever having children, and we did not. We married because we loved each other and we wanted to make a commitment to each other in front of friends and family. We wanted to be each other's family. We were free to get married, and in fact the whole thing was welcomed by everyone we knew. Why should I, as a straight woman, be able to legally commit myself to a man, when as a lesbian, I cannot do the same with a woman?
More importantly, why should any group of Americans get to decide which of the civil and legal rights of this country can be denied to another group of Americans? Hawaii and Alaska will never be able to live down the shame of November 3, 1998. One thing is certain, just as in the civil rights cases of the past, the right of marriage will be contested in other states in the Union. Eventually, all Americans will be free to marry whom they choose, and one day a coming generation will not be able to fathom how it was possible in 1998 to legally deny anyone the right to marry. It will be as foreign to them as it is to people today that there was a time when American women did not have the right to vote.
It's simple, really. If you are a man who believes that your religion forbids marriage between homosexuals, don't marry another man. Pick a woman. If you are a woman whose religious beliefs say that marriage between the same sexes is forbidden, marry a man. Otherwise, mind your own business, and get your foot off the collective necks of other Americans who deserve the same legal benefits and protections you enjoy.
Copyright November 5, 1998