Vote about taxes and leash laws, not marriage rights
Observers and commentators had hopes that the gay-marriage law in Maine would resist the forces of repeal. If allowed to stand, it would’ve been the first legislative (not judicial) step toward the right of marriage for gays and lesbians. The stereotype of the flinty, pragmatic Mainer raised its head and gave the impression that it would tell every moralistic prig and busybody to get off its property or it would sic the dogs on ya.
Unfortunately, the opponents of equality managed to gin up enough fear and ignorance in people to repeal the law. I don’t know what it’s like for a person to wake up the morning after something like this, knowing that your actions denied the civil rights and protection of a subgroup of your fellow Americans. I bet it would feel like someone took a shit in your shredded wheat. At least I would hope it does.
Why are these issues subject to “the will of the voters” anyway? Apparently a large number of them would choose to believe a 30-second commercial that lied about the bill’s content (that gay marriage would be “taught” in classrooms, whatever that means) than listen to their own governor and attorney general.
If the voter believes such things, sir, (to paraphrase Dickens’ Mr. Bumble) the voter is an ass.
Would the Voting Rights Act have passed if put up for direct popular vote? I doubt it. Should it have had to? Absolutely not.
The same is true about gay marriage. If it takes an “activist judge” to rule that my friends and neighbors can get married to the people they love, then I’ll take it. Because I’m tired of waiting for it. I’m tired of this fundamental human right being trampled on by people who don’t have the strength of character to see through their own prejudices, self-interests, fears, re-election hopes, and lamentations that the world is not the way they remember it growing up. I’m tired of enjoying the rights and responsibilities of my own marriage, while others are denied it, because the object of my love is “approved” by history and tradition.
It’s good to read other writers (particularly the Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan) who remind us in the wake of this defeat what a long way gay rights have come in such a short time. I do believe that time will turn the tide for this issue, and when the pillars of the country remain unaffected by Adam and Steve down the street, we’ll shake our heads and wonder why it took so long to stop treating innocent people like criminals.
But sometimes I wonder if the “will of the people”, sacrosanct though it may be, is better left to “Dancing with the Stars.”
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Great piece James. I just noticed that you are the Author of ‘Politically Correct Bedtime Stories’ how fantastic is that, I used to have that book. I must try to get it again.
Maybe if peoples basic rights were at stake or somebody was crapping on their Bran Flakes they would take note and bend over. The world view is changing albeit slowly and sometimes in the wrong direction.
We live in hope.
Thanks, Darren. Having this type of question decided by majority rule is flatly an injustice. And the lack of empathy, of putting yourself in another’s shoes, is distressing if typical.
But as Dr. King said, The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.
In response to another comment. See in context »The entire idea of people being allowed to vote on the rights of others is just disgusting. Lets hope that when the time comes the Supreme Court displays greater wisdom than the people of Maine did yesterday.
It will take a lot of hoping for that, too, but it will be interesting to see how the court conservatives would vote on it. Which will have more weight, their socially conservative views, or their professed devotion to the framers’ “Original Intent”?
In response to another comment. See in context »Ultimately this is a federal issue, not a states issue. I’ve continually had reservations about so much effort and recourse being directed at the state level when ultimately this is a 14th Amendment issue. I don’t think it was the intent of the Founding Fathers that every group was going to have to beg at the polls for their basic civil rights.
In response to another comment. See in context »But it might take these state issues and efforts to educate people and force them to confront the justice of the cause. The defeat in Maine was by a narrow margin; 10 years ago, it might have been much greater.
It is maddeningly bizarre, though, to contemplate a country where a marriage is recognized in some states and not others.
In response to another comment. See in context »Go for it, James. I’m getting your book, too. Having grown up in the segregated south, where a lot of us, black and white and otherwise, were long weary with the wait for decency to prevail over what seemed “the will of the people,” and now living in California where every other issue winds up wildly distorted into Proposition Z and awaiting a referendum, I firmly believe justice cannot rely on popular vote. I also fail to see how my current and final marriage is threatened by legalizing the far longer commitments of my many gay friends.
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