Same-sex marriage victory
Milestone in struggle for equal rights
By Minnie Bruce Pratt
In a swirl of rainbow confetti, Hillary and
Julie Goodridge entered the history books as they walked down
the aisle at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Boston on May
17 to marry each other. Their 8-year-old daughter Anna, who
strewed their path with rose petals, preceded these victorious
lead plaintiffs in the Massachusetts court case that declared
same-sex marriage legal in the state. Friends and family sang:
"Here come the brides, so gay with pride, isn't it a wonder
that they somehow survived!"
The happy couple--and lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans
population across the country--had done more than survive.
Their movement had triumphed once again, battling
institutionalized discrimination by forcing the state to grant
equal access to civil marriage for all couples.
The Goodridges had filed suit in 2001, along with seven
other gay and lesbian couples, after being denied licenses to
marry in their local municipalities. Turned down by courts at
every level, they appealed to the state Supreme Court. The
court ruled, in a historic 4-3 vote in November 2003, that the
Massachusetts ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional and
gave the state six months to put a plan in place for the
marriages.
This victory was won less than a year after the LGBT
movement and its supporters wrested a decision from the U.S.
Supreme Court that effectively decriminalized same-sex
love.
The Massachusetts victory reflects the profound change in
U.S. social attitudes that have been won by decades of lesbian,
gay, bisexual and trans organizing. According to a new Gallup
Poll, acceptance of same-sex unions is rapidly climbing in the
U.S., with a ten point increase in less than six months, to 42
percent in early May.
Support for same-sex marriage has also been voiced by the
National Black Justice Coalition, which launched a nationwide
campaign in December 2003 "to counter right-wing misinformation
about Blacks and marriage equality," defeat the proposed U.S.
constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, and focus on
support for such marriages in the African American community.
Members include Coretta Scott King, Rep. John Lewis, the Rev.
Al Sharpton, former Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, Whoopi
Goldberg, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, and former U.S.
Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders. (Gay City)
Throughout the day on May 17--in Massachusetts and
throughout the United States--many lesbian, gay, bi and trans
activists celebrated. When the clock struck midnight, ushering
in May 17, 10,000 supporters cheered and threw rice at the 263
couples that exited City Hall with their paperwork. Some of the
couples had waited in line for longer than a day.
The first couple to be married in Cambridge, Marcia Hams,
57, and Susan Shepherd, 52, have been together since they met
while working as machinists 27 years ago.
More than 1,000 gay and lesbian couples applied for marriage
licenses in Massachusetts on May 17. The Boston Globe reported
that two-thirds were women, and that 40 percent of those female
couples have children in their homes. Half have been together
for over a decade.
Erin Golden, 45, who married her partner of 25 years, Eileen
Counihan, on a Cape Cod beach with their 10-year-old son
between them, said: "This is one small kiss for us and one
giant kiss for humankind." (Melbourne Herald)
In Northampton, teacher Becky Lederma brought fourth-
through sixth-graders from Solomon Schechter Day School to see
"history in the making" at its City Hall weddings.
Battling the establishment
The political establishment, as well as the state, has
fought same-sex marriage at every step of the way.
Following the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision,
President George W. Bush announced his support for an amendment
to the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as the "union of a
man and a woman."
Following suit, bigots in the Massac husetts State
Legislature managed to get approval of a state constitutional
amendment to ban gay marriage, which cannot be put on the
ballot for statewide voter consideration before 2006.
Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry also made clear his
support for his state's legislative efforts to defeat equal
marriage access.
During and after this bruising legislative fight, rolling
civil disobedience was taking place across the country.
Same-sex marriages were being performed in San Francisco,
Portland, Ore., New Paltz, N.Y., and elsewhere. Thousands of
LGBT activists and their supporters rallied outside the
Massachusetts Statehouse while legislators deliberated
constitutional codification of discrimination.
In this atmosphere of struggle, several right-wing legal
attacks on the Massa chusetts Supreme Court ruling failed. And
on May 14, the U.S. Supreme Court refused without comment a
last-ditch effort to block the Massachusetts decision.
Three days later, Massachusetts became one of only seven
jurisdictions in the world to grant same-sex marriage, joining
Belgium, Denmark, the Nether lands and three Canadian
provinces.
A right-wing mobilization on May 17 fizzled. In Boston, only
about 15 anti-gay protesters stood with signs near City Hall,
vastly outnumbered by same-sex marriage supporters.
Unable to block the start of same-sex marriages on May 17,
Republican Gov. Mitt Romney fought to keep local clerks of
court from licensing out-of-state same-sex couples. He is
trying to apply a racist 1913 state law that was written to
hamper people of different "races" from marrying. That
anti-miscegenation statute prohibits Massachusetts authorizing
a marriage that would be illegal in the couple's home
state.
Romney ordered clerks in towns across the state to refuse to
issue marriage licenses to out-of-state couple, threatening to
prosecute any officials who refused to comply.
However towns such as Worcester, Provincetown and Somerville
defied Romney's order, issuing licenses to all who applied.
John Sullivan and Chris McCary, from Anniston, Ala., were
among the couples that married in Massachusetts on May 17. The
couple intends to take the fight for recognition of their
marriage to their home state. Same-sex marriages are not
recognized in Alabama. And in 2002, Alabama Supreme Court
Justice Roy Moore made headlines when he denied a lesbian
mother custody of her children.
Moore cited "the power of the state ...[which] carries the
power of the sword, that is, the power to prohibit conduct with
physical penalties, such as confinement and even execution. It
must use that power to prevent the subversion of children
toward this lifestyle...." (Workers World, March 14, 2002)
Expanding the struggle
"The legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts is a
hard-won legal right," stressed Leslie Feinberg, a leader in
the LGBT movement who helped organize solidarity around the
country with Massachusetts on May 17. "And with that victory,
we as a movement that is battling the state on every front need
to fight to expand the rights of all."
She pointed out that a thoughtful discussion of the movement
for equal marriage access is underway within LGBT communities
across the U.S. about how the state and employers might try to
twist the authorization of marriage to limit resources or
benefits.
For example, the demand for domestic partner benefits,
fueled by the AIDS epidemic, gained new ground in recent
decades. Many employers have been forced to end a two-tiered
benefits package that denied health care and other
bread-and-butter benefits to unmarried partners of workers.
One couple, Lisa McDonnell and Julia Dunbar, told reporters
this week that they decided to marry in Massachusetts on May 17
because they believed Dunbar's employer was considering
discontinuation of health benefits for domestic partners, which
would then go only to legally married couples.
And at an April panel discussion and community forum, "Love
& Marriage: Bush Style," at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender Community Center in New York City, many speakers
pointed to the current disparities in economic benefits between
married couples and single people, and that particularly LGBT
communities of color and the most oppressed sectors of the
movement are also concerned with a spectrum of problems ranging
from health care to immigration rights.
Speakers also warned about being conscious that the state
has historically "regulated" and brutally repressed lesbian,
gay and bi sexualities and trans lives.
Feinberg concluded, "The win for same-sex marriage in
Massachusetts opens up a set of economic benefits previously
denied to same-sex couples. Now it will take a broad and
diverse struggle, held together with the glue of unity against
oppression, of all who are fighting for economic and social
justice to defend what's already been fought for and won, and
to expand the rights and benefits of all working and oppressed
people."
Reprinted from the May 27, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
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