The Supreme Court’s new gay marriage case tests MLK’s dream of true equality

Opinion, LGBT, NakedLaw, News, Relationships, Rights

Avvo legal analyst Lisa Bloom writes today for The Huffington Post, “The Supreme Court’s New Gay Marriage Case Tests MLK’s Dream of True Equality.” Read an excerpt of her piece below as well as NakedLaw’s coverage of the Court’s historic move.

The Supreme Court’s new gay marriage case tests MLK’s dream of true equality

“How fitting that just before Martin Luther King Jr. weekend our Supreme Court justices agreed to decide whether our constitution requires all 50 states to recognize same-sex marriages. As Dr. King said the night before he died, ‘All we say to America is be true to what you said on paper.’

On paper, we Americans make sweeping pronouncements about equality, from the Declaration of Independence’s promise that ‘all men are created equal’ to our constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee that all persons are entitled to the ‘equal protection’ of the laws.

Yet it’s up to the courts to bring those texts to life. In the case of gay marriage, LGBT activists have had to do something no other group has, going state by state to obtain rulings granting them their rights. And in the last year or so, in a nearly unbroken string of more than 40 rulings around the country, federal and state judges have found that state same sex marriage bans are unconstitutional.

Because equal means equal.

The arguments against gay marriage would be laughable if they weren’t so insulting. Heterosexual marriages have not caved in from “undermining” by same-sex unions. The foundations of our nation have not been shaken. We have not gone down the slippery slope to humans marrying dogs or rats or orangutans.

Instead, as the Supreme Court has recognized in all of its decisions striking down anti-gay laws in the last dozen years, legal recognition of LGBT rights elevates us as a nation that respects the dignity of each of us, regardless of who we love and form families with …” Read the full article at The Huffington Post.

Same-sex marriage nears its defining moment

Nov. 2014 — “It’s a little stunning to think how fast same-sex marriage has entered the mainstream. Less than 10 years ago, the thought of legal, same-sex marriage was a pipe dream even in the bluest of blue states.

Even six years ago, when he first ran for president, Barack Obama expressed deep ambivalence about the prospect of extending the definition of marriage to same-sex couples. And at the same time, numerous states were passing statutes, perhaps the most notable of which was California’s Proposition 8, that attempted to limit the definition to unions between a man and a woman.

But efforts like Proposition 8 backfired spectacularly. First, they provided a springboard for gay rights activists to challenge the restrictions in court. While this was risky, it offered the potential of a swifter path to same-sex marriage recognition than would have been possible via the state legislature. And secondly, in more progressive states like Washington and Maine, the effort galvanized citizens to preemptively enact laws officially recognizing same-sex marriage.

The results have been more impressive than gay rights activists could have dreamed.” Read the full article on NakedLaw.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Avvo.

Photo: “Wisconsin’s gay marriage ban was struck down June 7, 2014 in Madison, WI,” Lindsay Douglas / Shutterstock.com

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