Heterosexuals Support Gay Marriage
The fabulous Deb Price, in "Heterosexuals increasingly back gay marriage" (the Detroit News), talks about the welcome support that we get for marriage equality from some unexpected quarters. She leads with this story:
When Baptist Pastor Stephen Jones talks about what makes for a happy marriage with Janice, his wife of 35 years, one special ingredient might surprise you: Double-dating with coupled friends who happen to be gay.
"We've double-dated so many gay couples over the years. They've been a real strength to our marriage. We've simply had wonderful times," says the pastor of Seattle's First Baptist Church, a big-steeple house of worship with many gay people in its congregation.
Moving on to the issue as it's coming up in court in Washington State, she points out that Lambda Legal, in their In Court section, make available a number of interesting friend-of-the-court briefs. She mentions some of her favorites; I particularly liked this first example:
Among those urging Washington state to join them in standing up for marriage-minded gay couples:
African-American, Latino, Asian and women's legal groups. Reviewing religious, cultural and pseudoscientific excuses for bans on interracial marriage before the Supreme Court knocked them down in 1967, the legal groups point to striking similarities to today's battle over marriage.
- In 1912, a Georgia congressman proposed amending the U.S. Constitution to declare: "Intermarriage between Negroes or persons of color and Caucasians … is forever prohibited."
- Defenders of racist restrictions on marriage could point to their popularity. A 1958 Gallup Poll found that 94 percent of Americans opposed mixed-race marriages.
I'm heading over to Lambda Legal to read further in Andersen v. Sims Friend-of-the-Court Briefs.