My friends Don and Brent are one of the best couples I know. They've been together more than 18 years, and they delight in each other in a way that few long term couples do. They met while they were undergraduates at a Christian college. They were married in a religious ceremony by two ministers. They own a home, they share work they love, they are active members in their community. Their friends marvel at how happy they make each other.
Just two problems. They are both men, and they live in New Jersey -- where yesterday the Senate Committee voted 20 to 14 to turn down marriage equality in the state. This action effectively means that their marriage cannot be legal in their home state for at least another four years, as the new governor is anti-marriage for same sex couples.
Their only hope is that the federal trial that begins on Monday in California about Prop 8 will end up in the U.S. Supreme Court, perhaps becoming the Brown vs. Board of Education type case for marriage equality.
As I've written here before, I am quite certain that marriage equality will happen in the next decade in the U.S. There simply is no justification except homophobia to prevent same sex couples like Don and Brent from being able to be legally married to each other and share all the benefits and protections of legalized marriage. As I tweeted yesterday to the 20 NO voting Senators, "what part of 'liberty and justice for all' don't you understand?"
I told Don and Brent last night that I'd be happy to perform a legal marriage for them here in Connecticut. It would be an honor to celebrate their love and commitment.
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2 comments:
A Supreme Court case would be the next logical step from Loving vs. Virgina.
IMHO before any state legislator votes on marriage equality in their state, they should take a good look at how it's worked here in Massachusetts.
At the very least, none of the horrid things so many anti-gay hysterics claimed would happen.
In fact, great benefits -- not just for same-sex partners, but their families and neighbors.
Strange how New Jersey's lawmakers voted this way on the same day that Portugal's parliament voted in favor of equality.
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