Civil Rites (Excellent gay marriage article. MUST READ)...

[foreigncorrespondent]

(Mods please note: I realize this is an editorial and I should be posting in the editorial section, but this covers so much plus much more of what we have been discussing here in GD for the last few weeks, I felt it would do better here. Please don't move it. This is such a wonderful article every one needs to read it. THANK YOU!)



FREEDOM-TO-MARRY ACTIVISTS BORROW STRATEGY FROM FIGHT FOR RACIAL EQUALITY


San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom touched off a defiant outburst of matrimony 10 days ago when he decided his city would issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. These marriages -- now more than 3,000 -- are also one of the most flagrant acts of mass civil disobedience in recent years.

The freedom-to-marry movement has long grounded its cause in the rhetoric and precedents of the American civil rights movement. As she began her arguments for gay marriage before the Vermont Supreme Court in 1998, lawyer Beth Robinson cited a landmark case from 1948, when the California Supreme Court became the first supreme court in the nation to throw out a ban on interracial marriage.

<snip>

Now in San Francisco's city hall, Newsom has provided the freedom-to-marry movement with what may be its Rosa Parks moment -- a turning point that for now has brought the battle beyond the courtroom.

Author Andrew Sullivan has argued that in the struggle for equal rights, the marriage taboo has been the last to fall, for both African Americans and gays and lesbians. It wasn't until 1967 that the U.S. Supreme Court finally found the prohibition of interracial marriage to be unconstitutional. And although gay advocates have scored increasing successes over the years for gay rights and political power, only in the last several years have they won court cases approving marriage -- and, so far, even those wins have been fleeting.

Full article: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/editorial/8014041.htm

[The Traveler]

1. It may well be the next Selma

One thing is for sure ... Newsom's defiant and moral action belongs in the next version of "Profiles of Courage". This man is welcome in my house anytime he needs a roof. My 15 year old son, a heavy metal bassist, when he saw this man speak on the news simply said: "This man has some serious stones."

I could not have possibly said it better.

I'm straight. Why do I support the right of gays to marry? Because that is matter for individuals to decide. Because if their rights are curtailed today my rights are on the platter for tomorrow. Because love is always just and justified. I support gay rights because it is the right thing to do.

Like, let's march on these fuckers.

[foreigncorrespondent]

2. Welcome to DU, Rob.

Your post truly touched my heart. You have brought tears to my eyes.

Thank you for your very insightful words. You are one of the good people.

If I could get back into the U.S. I would be standing in line marching with you.

[xchrom]

3. this was never going to be easy

and the ''right time'' is never going to come unless we create it.
the only thing radical is denying gay folk the right to marry.
if we are all equal under the law -- then it's time to pony up.

[Lexingtonian]

4. Very comprehensive

But let me point out that the heavy lifting and real defeat of the Religious Right is being brought about in Massachusetts, where things have lurched to the left and are down to conservatives only clinging to polls and absurd arguments that gays shouldn't be allowed to term their unions marriage. That's why you aren't seeing the RR bring their rabid hordes and operatives to SF to do what Schwarzenegger and Lockyer are unwilling to do to stop things. They may be losing a minor PR war in California but it's their impending catastrophic failure in legal standing of their cause in the Bay State that has them up nights. Massachusetts isn't short on good litigators and has an AG who enjoys taking on big game- the Bush Administration and Microsoft can testify to that. Mass. legalizing amounts to a rabid gerbil getting catapulted up their butt.

I'm a little worried that the San Francisco stuff will energize the Right to push the FMA harder and faster (so to speak). But I'd guess that, on the whole, it's politically neutral in effect and I'm very happy for those who to whom it is a wish wonderfully and finally fulfilled in some personal measure at least.