Michael Levin-Gesundheit
Editor-in-Chief

I believe in marriage. I believe in African-American marriage. I believe in Asian marriage. I believe in Latino marriage. I believe in interracial marriage. I believe in gay marriage.

What civil marriage brings legally are an abundance of rights. These include the right to visit a spouse that ill in the hospital, the right to take sick leave to take care of a spouse, and the right to obtain social security benefits from a spouse. Married persons may also transfer property without gift taxes and obtain joint insurance policies.

Civil marriage also brings responsibilities. Married persons remain married unless the state grants permission for them to divorce. After a divorce, a spouse may be required to pay spousal or child support.

On November 19, 2003, The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that that state had six months to grant these rights to homosexual couples. The Massachusetts state Legislature now has five months to allow gays to marry.

President George W. Bush responded with these words: “I will work with congressional leaders and others to do what is legally necessary to defend the sanctity of marriage.”

The president suggested marriage will lose its “sanctity” if it is bestowed upon gay couples. He implied it would lose its “sanctity” if the protections and responsibilities of civil marriage are extended to homosexuals. On a day when a court recognized the rights of a minority for the first time, the president suggested that America should continue to discriminate against homosexuals. There is nothing sanctified about discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Some say they must discriminate because of their religion. Anyone’s religious institution may continue to discriminate against homosexuals, but the government of the United States must not. We do not live in a theocracy. We cannot allow our government to promote bigotry.

Some advocate civil unions rather than marriage for homosexuals. Civil unions give most of the rights of marriage to gay couples. Civil unions are not acceptable because they only give most of the rights of marriage. We cannot legislate second-class citizenship for homosexuals.

In the 1950s some states still banned interracial marriage. During that time, many Americans condoned segregation and discrimination against African-Americans. It took the 1967 Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia to strike down laws banning interracial marriage. At the time the ruling was controversial. Today it seems obviously right.

In the court’s 1967 decision were these words: “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.”

It is the Supreme Court’s duty to uphold the rights of a minority when they are threatened by a bigoted majority. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has made the right choice. I only hope that the U.S. Supreme Court soon recognizes homosexuals as “free men” and women.