Marriage for Same-Sex Couples: A Matter of Civil Rights?
Marriage for Same-Sex Couples:
A Matter of Civil Rights?
Generations of African Americans have worked to make our nation’s promise of equal justice a reality. From Emancipation and Brown vs. Board of Education to everything beyond, Black communities have struggled to gain due respect in society. Today, same-sex couples working to end discrimination in marriage often invoke the spirit of civil rights in their quest to legally marry.
Are marriage rights for same-sex couples the next hurdle in our ongoing movement for civil rights? Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Californians seem to think so, and are actively seeking to achieve this next level of equality. Some key architects of the African American civil rights movement are joining with them, calling the ability to marry the person of our choice a matter of basic human rights.
“From time to time, America comes to a crossroads. With confusion and controversy, it’s hard to spot that moment. We need cool heads, warm hearts, and America’s core principles to cleanse away the distractions…We are now at such a crossroads over same-sex couples’ freedom to marry. It is time to say forthrightly that the government’s exclusion of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters from civil marriage officially degrades them and their families…. I have fought too hard and too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation.”
-U.S. Representative John Lewis, a Democratic congressman from Georgia, worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King and was one of the original speakers at the 1963 March on Washington
