Separate But Equal? Or Just, Unequal?

I spent the last week and a half very excited about Obama's win. Prior to the election I had worried that I would run out of things to read, but with undecided senate races, Obama's transition team, and the on going shenanigans of the lamest of lame duck presidents, it's been easy to keep myself busy.

As exciting as Obama's win was and continues to be, with the successful passage of proposition eight in California banning gay marriage and two other similar state constitution measures in Arizona and Florida (not to mention the adoption limitations passed in Arkansas), the country has taken a distressing step backwards. With much of the post election talk focusing on the positive implications Obama's election has for the status/future of racial equality in our country, it is hard not to be floored by the juxtaposition of this historic moment with the giant movement away from equality for homosexuals that this election has given us.

In discussing this with various people I have heard reactions which mirror mine in terms of puzzlement and outrage. How can this have happened? It is actually shocking to me that such right-removing laws were passed at all, let alone passed this year, in 2008. With a few exceptions, most people my age who I've talked to feel the same way. Jason has an excellent take on it which you should read here. However, I've talked to other people who, although they don't agree with these laws, aren't nearly as concerned or upset about them having been passed. Someone I work closely with and with whom I've had very interesting and at times fun political discussions, is one of the people I know who feels that these laws being passed is not a big deal. As MC put it to me, gay people can still get married in other states, civil unions are still an option, and after all, in each state where these laws were passed, the majority made the decision and since we live in a democracy, the homosexual minority will just have to deal with it.

So many people have been writing, speaking and protesting about how ridiculous these arguments are and I'd just like to add my two cents. To respond to the "America is a democracy" argument--yes and no. Although we do live in a country where the majority votes to make decisions about the direction of our nation, we also live under a constitution which is in place to protect the rights of everyone living here. And as Dan Savage put it very eloquently in an interview on CNN, "the constitution exists to protect the rights vulnerable minorities against the tyranny of the majority." And in response to the notion that civil unions and out of state marriages can make up for the removal of homosexual couple's rights to marriage in their own states, the words of the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board seem to scream out at me. Separate but equal is inherently unequal. And passing a law which runs entirely counter to this notion is no trivial matter.

We've moved backwards at a time when it seems that we had come so close to moving beyond ignorance, hatred and fear. One can only hope that this leads to a strong push back from those fighting for their rights and from everyone who sees how ugly these laws are.