Tuesday, February 26, 2008

IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME


"With one week to go until the California Supreme Court hears arguments for and against same-sex marriage gay and lesbian couples throughout the state are making plans to attend the landmark hearing.

"The court has scheduled three hours for oral arguments on March 4. The justices then have 90 days to issue a ruling. If the case is successful it would make California the second state in the nation to allow same-sex couples to legally marry and likely lead to a rush for June weddings."

[See here for the full article.]

With Massachusetts legalizing same-sex marriage several years ago, and with New York currently recognizing same-sex marriages validly contracted in other jurisdictions (See here), I have no doubt that the California Supreme Court will acknowledge that basic fairness and equality before the law mandates that same-sex marriage become legal within the state of California.

To do otherwise would cast them as embarrassing anachronisms, much as the U.S. Supreme Court was so cast when Plessey v Ferguson, in 1896, legitimized racial segregation and ruling that the doctrine "separate but equal" was constitutional, and then having that decision overturned by a subsequent Supreme Court decision, Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, in 1954, which ruled that "separate is not equal," and that integration is mandated in all public schools, which greatly aided in paving the way for integration in all public accommodations, and the eventual triumph of the Civil Rights movement for African-Americans.

I don't think it takes a prophet to recognize that the whole house of cards of treating Gay couples who seek to make a lifetime commitment to each other as second-class citizens is soon to become a thing of the past! I doubt it will occur in my lifetime, but I'm absolutely convinced that within a maximum of 20 years, same-sex marriage will be a reality in every state of the union.

And, as I've so often written, the crucial advantage of same-sex marriage, beyond recognizing the equality, legitimacy, and dignity of same-sex love, finally acknowledging that same-sex love is in no way inferior to heterosexual love, will be the one civil right that will usher in virtually all other civil rights that accrue to all other citizens in this society.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your blog and for your voice. It is comforting to have an advocate that fights with words and strength!

I was hoping that you could link my blog (if you find it suiting) in your links. www.dividedialogue.blogspot.com
I would love to be heard by more readers and to be linked with your words.

Jerry Maneker said...

Dear Anonymous: Thank you so much for your very kind words and sentiments. It was a pleasure for me to add your blog to my Links section. One day soon, I hope and pray that no one will any longer feel the need to use a pseudonym when expressing him/herself. Jesus came to set us free! The Gospel is one of Liberation from the yokes of bondage placed on us by assorted laws, rules, regulations, traditions that make void the Word of God (Matthew 15:3), and from the mind-sets and prejudices of mere fallible human beings who seek to define our realities for us. God bless you in your endeavor to live the authentic life that God ordained you to live. My very best wishes, Jerry.