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Today is a big day for marriage equality in Massachusetts. State legislators vote on sending a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage to the people for a vote:
Supporters of gay marriage appeared to be gaining ground, with a handful of lawmakers who previously supported the constitutional amendment saying they were rethinking their votes. Massachusetts legalized gay marriage in 2003.
To reach voters in a statewide ballot in 2008, the proposal needs the backing of a quarter of the state's legislators — 50 lawmakers — in two successive sittings of the Legislature. It won approval in January on the final day of the last session.
Supporters and opponents agree that eight lawmakers who supported the measure then must change their votes Thursday to keep the question from going to voters.
"Let the people decide," sounds like such a pro-democracy talking point doesn't it?
What would America look like today if the following had been put to a national thumbs up or down vote: slavery, whites only schools, and interracial marriage.
It was only forty years ago that the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against marriage discrimination based on race. Now that racial marriage equality has been in place for decades, what percentage of us would favor reversing the Supreme Court's ruling?
The tyranny of the majority is an ugly thing, never good for personal liberties, and doesn't move society forward. Even Michelle Malkin doesn't like mob rule.
Marriage equality, at least as far as a state can take it, has been in place since 2004 in Massachusetts. The sky has not fallen. Heterosexuals are still marrying and un-marrying unfettered.
I feel like a broken record (again), but as I've written before and before, "separate but equal wasn't good enough for schools or drinking fountains; it's not good enough for nuptials." Civil Unions are not an equivalent of marriage.
TTags:civil rights,marriage equality
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