Happy Loving Day! June 12

[madmatt]

Happy Loving Day!

40 years ago today, June 12, 1967, our country passed a major milestone in civil rights and the triumph of love, fairness and reason over racism and intolerance.

The interracial marriage was legalized by The Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia. Richard and Mildred Loving, whose name made the name of this day so appropriate, weren’t civil rights activists, they were just a couple who were in love and got married, like millions of people around the world do every day. All they wanted to do was sanctify and solidify their relationship by promising a lifelong bond before God and everyone.

On June 12, 1967, the highest court in the land showed once again that one their greatest roles in making ours the greatest country on earth, by protecting small groups of people from the tyrrany of the majority. They unanimously overturned the conviction of Richard and Mildred Loving, a young interracial couple from rural Caroline County, Virginia, who were sent to jail because racist residents and lawmakers decided it was an abomination that black and white people should marry.

Like with gay marriage today, it was an atrocious and obvious violation of our Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection under the law – of all people, not all WHITE or all STRAIGHT people.

That decision struck down the racist laws that banned interracial marriage in more than a dozen states.

Now, 40 years later, at least on a statewide level, we’ve just passed a similar watershed moment of progress, as the California Supreme Court wisely decided that the state ban on gay marriage, approved by a majority of voters in 2005, was unconstitutional. As of June 17, nearly the same important anniversary for Civil Rights and tolerance, same sex couples will be able to get married and enjoy the same rights that straight married couples have. Not most of the rights. Their marriages won’t be almost the same as marriage, as with civil unions. Equality means equal, not almost equal. There is no separate but equal, as if we have not learned that yet in this country.
In language that is today exactly as relevant as it was 40 years ago, the ACLU lawyer arguing the case said:

"The Lovings have the right to go to sleep at night knowing that if should they not wake in the morning, their children would have the right to inherit from them. They have the right to be secure in knowing that, if they go to sleep and do not wake in the morning, that one of them, a survivor of them, has the right to Social Security benefits. All of these are denied to them, and they will not be denied to them if the whole anti-miscegenistic scheme of Virginia... [is] found unconstitutional."
Change out the words black and white with same sex couples…

Richard Loving was white; his wife, Mildred, was black. In 1958, they went to Washington, D.C. — where interracial marriage was legal — to get married. But when they returned home, they were arrested, jailed and banished from the state for 25 years for violating the state's Racial Integrity Act.

The people who oppose gay marriage have every right to not have a gay marriage. But they persecute, denigrate, discriminate and have contempt and hatred for gays, supposedly because of their “amoral lifestyleâ€

[thirt33n]

damn! i've gotta git myself some true brown sugar love tonight!
wait,...i'm in north idaho. damn.

...dreams of jamaica

thanks for the heads up madmatt
good history. stars n bars in flames.

[Rabbi Dali Rick]

did you try the internet?.........




the rebbi

[thirt33n]

it's just pretty sparse up here. but getting better.
i was born in north manhattan aka harlem and spent half my life there. i miss diversity but i don't miss the air and the sheer numbers of people.

as far as this inland northwest,...it is getting more diverse. by 2010 we're supposed to have approx 15 more "people of color".

you're always welcome in north idaho Reb. we gots golf and jack here too.

[BigCock]

[JezebelinHell]

That post did make me wanna fuck a black chick. I'm all monogamous now though, so I'll just have to pretend my girlfriend is ethnic even though she looks like an Aryan poster child.

[ragabashpup]

Congrats to all those in california. Washington will follow 4 - 7 years later like we do on everything else

[madmatt]

That post did make me wanna fuck a black chick. I'm all monogamous now though, so I'll just have to pretend my girlfriend is ethnic even though she looks like an Aryan poster child.

\

Bwahahaha! That's hot. You could try covering her with chocolate body paint, but that much of it would be really, really fattening. Probably a little offensive too.

[Ugly Dougly]

I'd rather brutalize my Asian stereotype girlfriend. It must have been pretty exciting when it was illegal!