On July 4, 1776, the first Americans were born. They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to each other and to the creation of a new nation. One of my ancestors, Thomas Heyward of South Carolina, was among them.
But if someone had told him, 227 years ago, that he was fighting for a country where homosexual sex would one day be legal, he would've burned down his plantation, gathered his family, and gone running back to good old England.
Not that it would've done much good: 227 years later, sodomy is legal in England, too. But I digress.
The point is, the Founding Fathers were all about the pursuit of happiness, but they never thought it would be acceptable for some men to pursue other men.
Of course, they also wrote, "...all men are created equal," and sent their slaves to deliver the message, so the Founding Fathers clearly weren't perfect. But, thank God, their ideas were good enough to grow beyond their prejudices.
On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states have no right to govern private sex between consenting adults, no matter the genders of the participants. This decision is only the latest in a round of victories for the gay community.
On July 1, Wal-Mart (America's largest private employer) expanded its anti-discrimination policy to protect homosexual employees.
Canada and Great Britain, who have previously allowed homosexual "civil unions," now realize that weddings by any other name just aren't as sweet. In June, gay marriage became legal in Ontario; the Canadian federal government and Great Britain are working on it.
And that begs the question-- how long must homosexuals in the United States wait to enjoy the same freedom and basic civic equality?
Perhaps not as long as you think-- the Massachusetts Supreme Court is expected to legalize same-sex marriage within months. Once that happens, things could get very interesting; the Constitution requires each state to give "full faith and credit" to the legal records of other states.
In other words, unless extreme legal measures are taken, a same sex marriage in Massachusetts must be recognized in Wyoming.
Members of the "religious right" will fight with all they have to stop this from happening. Some even suggest a constitutional amendment forbidding same sex marriage-- they want to write discrimination into our nation's charter.
But oddly enough, marriage would actually stabilize the gay community in traditionally conservative ways. It would encourage responsibility, fidelity, and commitment, even while discouraging promiscuity.
So what are the conservatives afraid of?
Some of them seem worried that if two women or two men can marry, God will give up on humans and -- I don't know -- flood the earth, or something. But the legalization of same sex marriage is not a religious issue. It's a secular, civil issue.
The Roman Catholic Church doesn't allow divorcees to get married in its ceremonies. The bishops believe God would disapprove -- but no one seriously suggests that remarriage should be illegal for everyone. In the same way, churches could deny homosexuals the right to marry without forcing civil society to follow their lead.
In the United States, convicts on death row are allowed to marry. So are convicted wife-beaters, child-molesters and the mentally incompetent. If a deadbeat dad has the right to marry, surely two loving, law-abiding Americans have that same right.
In a nation founded on the right to the pursuit of happiness, what could be more fundamental than that?
Write to Stephen at stevehj@mac.com
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