Date: Fri, 17 Feb 1995 14:05:23 -0500
From: Gabo3@aol.com

Thursday, Feb 16, 1995
New York Newsday

Confederate Echoes in New Gay Laws
by Gabriel Rotello 
	New York - "All marriages between a white person and a colored person shall
be absolutely void without any decree of divorce or other legal process."
	For decades that vile law prevented blacks and whites from being legally
married in Virginia. Although it probably strikes most people today as
hideous, bizarre, offensive and supremely racist, it was rigorously enforced
right up to 1967, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck it down as a blatant
measure "to maintain White Supremacy." But to a lot of white supremacists,
and even to a lot of other people, it probably seemed natural and self
evident. "Almighty God created the races and he placed them 
on separate continents," wrote one Virginia judge in convicting a mixed race
couple of the "crime" of marriage. "The fact that he separated the races
shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."
	Thank god we've gotten over that, right? As long as two consenting adults
love each other and want to build a family, they should be able to get
married no matter what some bigots think god intended, right? 
	Right?
	Last week a new bill, with language almost identical to the harsh old
statutes of the Confederacy, sailed through South Dakota's lower house.
Except that now the objection isn't race. It's gender. "Any marriage between
persons of the same gender," the bill says, "is null and void from the
beginning." It is expected to breeze through South Dakota's senate as well,
and the governor says he'll sign it the second it hits his desk. 
	Its purpose is to nullify the possibility that South Dakota might have to
recognize same-sex marriages conducted in Hawaii when, as expected, the
Hawaiian supreme court legalizes such marriages sometime next year. When that
happens, lots of gay and lesbian couples say they intend to travel to Hawaii,
marry, then return home to places like South Dakota and claim marriage
benefits. Conservatives are determined to head this off at the pass. The
South Dakota bill, and another introduced last week in Utah, are the first
shots of this new anti-gay offensive. They will not be the last.
	The similarities between these new bills and the old anti-miscegenation laws
are obvious, says Evan Wolfson, head of Lambda's Marriage Project. Both
target forbidden unions by deeming them legally "void" from the beginning.
Both are based on the idea that marriage is, by definition, restricted to
certain people. Both argue that this is so natural and obvious it hardly
needs defending. It's how things always were. And how they were always meant
to be.
	Well, in both cases it may be the way things were. But in both cases that
way was wrong. Anti-miscegenation laws in the U.S., and the notorious
Nuremberg laws in Germany, deliberately stripped African Americans and Jews
of dignity and humanity. Slave owners and Nazis alike understood that one of
the lowest blows you can inflict on someone's humanity is to forbid them to
marry whomever they choose. South Dakota's bill is intended to strike that
same blow against uppity gay men and lesbians. So let's get real. 
	For too long, those who give lip service to gay rights have failed to follow
their logic to its conclusion: that if gay relationships are equal to those
of straights, then same sex marriage should be legal. But the bigots are now
attacking and the time has come to call in the chips. You're either with us
or against us (and lots of dedicated foes are against us.) So as far as I'm
concerned, the litmus test that now separates friend from foe is this: Are
you in favor of full, legal, same-sex marriage? Or not?
	If you're not, keep you sympathy and tolerance. But if you are, it's time to
start saying so, loudly and clearly. Our enemies aren't shy about opposing
gay marriage. Our friends had better not be shy about supporting it.