The Sioux City Journal did a front page story about gay marriage, which the Iowa Supreme Court is facing a challenge to the state’s constitution’s equal protection clause. I was horrified to read what the republican state legislators said regarding the issue. They had the audacity to quote THE BIBLE. There are plenty of legal arguments on both sides; there is no need to use and abuse the Bible. One republican quoted Sodom and Gomorrah. Really?? I thought that story was against sodomy, but I guess that is my interpretation of the story.
I think gay marriage will be viewed like interracial marriage someday. Not so long ago interracial marriage (miscegenation) was considered an evil. It was not until 1967 in Loving v. Virginia when the United States Supreme Court ruled that bans on interracial marriage were unconstitutional. Also, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proclaimed on Meet the Press that California led the way with interracial marriage in the California Supreme Court similar to gay marriage.
Justice Kennedy was thrown under the bus by conservatives when he authored the opinion in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down a Texas statute that criminalized gay sodomy. I know that the Court struck down the law under Substantive Due Process because consensual sexual conduct is a protected liberty. But I also think the argument can be made using the text, and I am not even a textualist, but I am just doing it to prove a point.
The Fourteenth Amendment of our great United States Constitution advances that all citizens shall be treated equally. It states, “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Therefore, statutes that criminalize or single out individuals because of their sexual orientation is NOT the equal protection of the laws. I know there are other dimensions to the argument and that sexual orientation is not a suspect class but I am trying to avoid becoming too “law student” about this.
In the end, we all have a right to privacy and who cares who is kissing who. “Heterosexual couples” do enough to screw up marriage with the divorce rate as high as it is. If we are in the business of regulating marriage, then why don’t we put a time limit on how long one should know someone from online dating before getting married or require marriage counseling or even arranged marriages??
If a person finds love in their life, which can be hard enough, then who are we to deny them of that love?
P.S. An interesting website - http://www.filibustercartoons.com/marriage.htm
-Jen
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