While I attempt to bang out the latest in this Spring's endless series of briefs, I direct your attention to Nicholas Kristof's column in today's New York Times.
Kristof compares President Bush's call for a constitutional prohibition against gay marriage to that of Representative Seaborn Roddenberry, a legislator from Georgia who, in 1912, proposed a similar amendment banning interracial marriage. As Kristof demonstrates, the language used by the proponents of the gay marriage ban closely mimics that offered to justify the interracial marriage proscription. This juxtaposition illustrates why barring from marriage two men or two women who want to love, honor, and file joint tax returns together is just as bigoted as telling people of different races that their union is an affront to the "sanctity" of the marital institution and threatens to unravel the fabric of American culture.
Kristof also points out that the federal Defense of Marriage Act is "less a monument to fidelity than to hypocrisy," since it was "written by the thrice-married Representative Bob Barr and signed by the philandering Bill Clinton." But of course, their marriages are sacred, right?
Comments