I am angry and sickened by Maine putting gay marriage rights on a ballot. They just became state number 31 to overturn equal marriage rights for same-sex couples in a popular vote, after those rights became law in that state.
How is it that gay civil rights are allowed to be put to a popular vote? How is this in any way legal? It is not legal. It is a direct violation of our Constitutional right to equal protection under the law. LGBT organizations are going about this issue completely the wrong way. This is a U.S. Constitution 14th Amendment issue.
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. 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.– 14th Amendment, United States Constitution
If our civil rights can be decided by popular vote, and not by our right to equal protection under the law, why not put anyone’s civil rights to a popular vote? Because it violates the U.S. Constitution.
Why don’t gay and lesbian couples have the same right to equal protection under the law guaranteed in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, including the equal right for two adults of the age of consent who are of the same gender to enter into the civil contract of marriage? Because we’re not really a country about equality in practice. We never have been.
We are a country full of bigots who will deny civil rights to any group we can until we are forced to stop denying those rights by the federal courts or by specific federal laws banning discrimination. When we obtain civil rights for one group, those rights do not carry over to the next group subject to the same discrimination (Gay marriage is similar to interracial marriage, see Loving v Virginia, 1967).
It seems in America no minority group has any civil rights until they are tested in the federal courts and the U.S. Congress. We’re supposed to be a country that guarantees equal rights to all, except we’re not. Any minority group discriminated against is automatically denied civil rights until the group wins a Supreme Court case protecting those rights, or Congress passes a law guaranteeing those rights. Our Constitution is essentially meaningless for minorities until it is enforced. Minorities must exercise their right to due process of law to receive the equal rights guaranteed in the same Constitutional Amendment.
Second Amendment rights don’t seem so tenuous. Anyone who carries a gun in accordance with the laws of the state in which they live cannot be stopped from carrying a gun. Gun laws are not discriminatory either. We saw that Constitutional Amendment exercised during the August town hall meetings on health care. Some who were licensed to carry guns, openly or concealed, brought them to town hall rallies and meetings, even one where President Obama was speaking. They were not permitted access to the President, but they were not removed from the rallies outside the buildings where the President was speaking. Why weren’t their guns taken away? Because of their 2nd Amendment rights to keep and bare arms. Why doesn’t the 14th Amendment have the same weight as the 2nd Amendment?
When are we going to start fighting for gay and lesbian equal rights on the civil rights battleground on which it belongs?
When are we going to demand our 14th Amendment rights the way others demand and exercise their 2nd Amendment rights?
Photo credit: San Francisco Chronicle photo by Liz Mangelsdorf
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