Happy Loving Day! (June 12)

[TheLovelyMaid]

June 12 marks an anniversary close to my heart, and though it isn't widely known, I still like to tell anyone I can about it.

Anyone who is interested in any evidence toward the end of Prop. 8 or toward the legalization of gay marriage can look at the 1967 Loving vs. Virginia case (U.S.), on Wikipedia or in any search engine. 

In its decision, the court wrote:

"Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discrimination. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State."

So, I thoroughly encourage everyone to look up this case today, learn the story of Mildred and Richard Loving, and remember that love isn't restricted to race, creed, clan, ethnicity, economic level or gender.  The decision of Loving v. Virginia is, and remains, in my humble opinion, definitely a legislation that I'm proud my country passed.

“Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.”--Kahlil Gibran

[Oniya]

Mildred Loving herself spoke out on the issue of gay marriage, back in 2007, on the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision. 

(Source:  http://lesbianlife.about.com/od/gaymarriageinformation/a/Loving.htm )

Loving for All

Prepared for Delivery on June 12, 2007, The 40th Anniversary of the Loving vs. Virginia Announcement
By Mildred Loving

When my late husband, Richard, and I got married in Washington, DC in 1958, it wasn't to make a political statement or start a fight. We were in love, and we wanted to be married.

We didn't get married in Washington because we wanted to marry there. We did it there because the government wouldn't allow us to marry back home in Virginia where we grew up, where we met, where we fell in love, and where we wanted to be together and build our family. You see, I am a woman of color and Richard was white, and at that time people believed it was okay to keep us from marrying because of their ideas of who should marry whom.

When Richard and I came back to our home in Virginia, happily married, we had no intention of battling over the law. We made a commitment to each other in our love and lives, and now had the legal commitment, called marriage, to match. Isn't that what marriage is?

Arrested in the Middle of the Night

Not long after our wedding, we were awakened in the middle of the night in our own bedroom by deputy sheriffs and actually arrested for the "crime" of marrying the wrong kind of person. Our marriage certificate was hanging on the wall above the bed.

The state prosecuted Richard and me, and after we were found guilty, the judge declared: ""Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix." He sentenced us to a year in prison, but offered to suspend the sentence if we left our home in Virginia for 25 years exile.

We left, and got a lawyer. Richard and I had to fight, but still were not fighting for a cause. We were fighting for our love.

Though it turned out we had to fight, happily Richard and I didn't have to fight alone. Thanks to groups like the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, and so many good people around the country willing to speak up, we took our case for the freedom to marry all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And on June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that, "The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men," a "basic civil right."

God's Plan?

My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God's plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation's fears and prejudices have given way, and today's young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.

Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the "wrong kind of person" for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people civil rights.

Freedom to Marry for All

I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about.

[Trieste]

That's so beautiful. Thanks for the quote.

[Brandon]

I dont think I had ever heard of this case before. I wish I had though. Today I gain another fact for my reasons to allow gay marriage. The story of race preventing two people to be together is just as sad as sexual orientation preventing two people to be together. Her words about young people taking up the riegns of the future and in the process changing things for the better also gives me hope that one day soon Ill be able to catch that boquette at some of my gay friends weddings

Thanks for sharing this

[Oniya]

Loving vs. Virginia was one of the death blows to the miscegenation laws.  My mother remembers the days when mixed-race couples were looked down on, and even tried to pass that prejudice on to her children.  (She once said 'I'm not prejudiced, I just don't think blacks and whites should interact socially.' and even got upset because the valedictorian my kid sister was interested in wasn't white.)

Mr. Oniya and I were present at the 'commitment ceremony' that my oldest sister and her wife had, even getting the opportunity to 'say a few words' over the ring that they passed around the circle of friends.

[Caela]

I didn't know about this case until reading about it just now. The quoted text from Mrs. Loving is beautiful and so very appropriate to the issue of being allowed to marry the person you love. This is an issue that will never effect me personally if/when I get married (I'm straight so who I marry isn't an issue) but it does effect many people I care about and I hope that I live to see the day a similar case makes it to the SCOTUS and gets a similar ruling for people of any orientation.

Nobody should have the right to tell two consenting adults who they can/can't or should/shouldn't love.

[TheLovelyMaid]

There's also a movie about it, entitled Mr. and Mrs. Loving (1996), if anyone wants to rent it!

[Brandon]

Hmmm I just had an interesting thought. In the last hundred years we've seen marriage evolving. We have seen religion and law refuse to marry because of religion (or more specifically not their own religion), race, and in todays fight sexual orientation. I wonder should we ever make first contact with an alien race will this issue come again? Having the religions and society refuse interspecies marriages? If so, Im sure Ms. lovings words will live on

[Lilias]

Science fiction has already tackled that (after all, what else is science fiction but an exploration of how we interact with 'the others', now that there are no 'others' left on earth?) - I was watching a DS9 episode featuring that very concept last night. It all boils down to the clash and reconciliation of cultures, after all.

[Oniya]

Of course, sometimes it doesn't work, even in sci-fi (reference the episode where Lwxana Troi has her full Betzoid wedding.)  ;D

[Caela]

Of course, sometimes it doesn't work, even in sci-fi (reference the episode where Lwxana Troi has her full Betzoid wedding.)  ;D

Heheheh...and shocked her grooms family by dropping her robes and going down the aisle naked!

Is it bad that I know that? Still it's a good example of a rather severe culture clash.

[Brandon]

Ya know in of the movies (I think it was insurrection) they had a wedding party for Riker and Troi and in it they also comment that there will be a betazoid wedding ceremony. Riker says something like "oh itll be much smaller. No party, no music, and no clothes". Still I think it will cause yet another marriage battle