Past views on race provide lessons about gay marriage

[dArKeR]

By Nicholas Kristof
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , NEW YORK
Sunday, Mar 07, 2004,Page 9

Shakespeare's "Othello" used to be among the hardest plays to stage in America. Although the actors playing Othello were white, they wore dark makeup, so audiences felt "disgust and horror," as Abigail Adams said. She wrote, "My whole soul shuddered whenever I saw the sooty heretic Moor touch the fair Desdemona."

Not until 1942, when Paul Robeson took the role, did a major American performance use a black actor as Othello. Even then, Broadway theaters initially refused to accommodate such a production.

Fortunately, we did not enshrine our "disgust and horror" in the Constitution -- but we could have. Long before President George W. Bush's call for a "constitutional amendment protecting marriage," Representative Seaborn Roddenberry of Georgia proposed an amendment that he said would uphold the sanctity of marriage.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/03/07/2003101517

[Mixxster]

1. Good article

Kick.