Friday, August 18, 2006
Virginia is no longer for lovers
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
Julian Bond
Bond, chairman of the NAACP since 1998, is a professor at the University of Virginia and American University.
I always thought Virginia was for lovers, not against them. That's why I am so thankful for the case Loving v. Virginia.
A married couple -- Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, a black woman -- won a 1967 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that Virginia's miscegenation laws were unconstitutional. That case recognized marriage as one of the inviolable personal rights in Americans' pursuit of happiness, a right that would have been denied my wife and me if we had sought to marry before Loving became law.
"Civil rights" are positive legal prerogatives -- the right to equal treatment before the law. These are rights shared by all -- there is no one in the United States who does not, or should not, share in them.
Gay and lesbian rights are not special rights in any way. It isn't special to be free from discrimination. It is an ordinary, universal entitlement of citizenship.
The right not to be discriminated against is a commonplace claim we all expect to enjoy under our laws and our founding document, the Constitution. That many struggled and even died to gain these rights makes them even more precious. But it does not make them special, and it does not reserve them only for some, or restrict them from others.
When others gain a civil right, my rights are not reduced in any way. Civil rights are a win/win game -- the more won by others, the stronger the army defending my rights becomes. My rights are not diluted by those my neighbor enjoys -- he or she becomes my ally in defending the rights we share.
For some, comparing the African-American civil rights movement and the movement for gay and lesbian rights somehow diminishes the long black struggle for equality with all its suffering and sacrifices.
People of color ought to be flattered, however, that our movement has provided so much inspiration for others, that it has been so widely imitated, and that our tactics, methods, heroines and heroes, even our songs, have been adopted by or served as models for others.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People opposes the federal marriage amendment, and we oppose efforts to write bigotry into Virginia's constitution, too. Sexual orientation parallels race -- I was born black and had no choice. I couldn't and wouldn't change it if I could. Like race, our sexuality isn't a preference -- it is inborn, and the Constitution protects us all against discrimination based on immutable differences.
Of course, no parallel between movements for rights is exact. People of color carry the badge of who we are on our faces. But we are far from the only people suffering discrimination. Others, too, deserve the law's protections and civil rights.
Many gays and lesbians worked side by side with me in the '60s civil rights movement. Am I to now tell them, "Thanks for risking life and limb to help win my rights," but allow their exclusion because of a condition of their birth? Having accepted and embraced them as partners in a common struggle, can I now turn my back on them and deny them rights they helped me win? Not a chance.
In 1965, those of us who worked in the civil rights movement were buoyed by a radio address given by Lyndon Johnson. His words still speak to us today. He said:
"It is difficult to fight for freedom. But I also know how difficult it can be to bend long years of habit and custom to grant it. There is no room for injustice anywhere in the American mansion. But there is always room for understanding those who see the old ways crumbling. And to them today I say simply this: It must come. It is right that it should come. And when it has, you will find that a burden has been lifted from your shoulders too. It is not just a question of guilt, although there is that. It is that men cannot live with a lie and not be stained by it."
The lessons of the civil rights movement of yesterday, and the ongoing civil rights movement of today, is that sometimes the simplest of ordinary acts -- taking a seat on a bus or a lunch counter, registering to vote, applying for a marriage license -- can have extraordinary consequences. They can change the way we act and think. They can change our world.
The so-called "marriage amendment" to Virginia's Bill of Rights should be defeated. Let us maintain our determination to fight on until all our brothers and sisters enjoy the blessings of liberty and justice.
