Posted by Sir Four at 4:03pm May 20 '08What if, half a century ago, the "radical liberals" of the time who wanted to bust tradition and end the ban on interracial marriage had settled for another route. What if some clever person had come up with a way to "make it fair" to interracial couples by creating this new thing called a "civil union" or "domestic partnership"?
Does this not sound absurd to our modern ears--the notion that people of the same race could marry as usual, but if a black wanted to marry a white, they'd have to instead have a "civil union"? They just aren't fit for marriage, you see.
And why would this alternate marriage-like institution be created? Simply because the people of the time are too prejudiced to stomach the idea of whites marrying blacks--in other words, create a separate-but-equal institution to accomodate the prejudice of the majority.
The only problem is, accomodation of prejudice does not rise to the level of a compelling state interest for creating a second marriage-like institution, which is what the California court ruled. In my opinion, this ruling is no different than Perez v. Sharp, which struck down the ban on interracial marriage. This is how history will eventually view it, anyhow.
Does this not sound absurd to our modern ears--the notion that people of the same race could marry as usual, but if a black wanted to marry a white, they'd have to instead have a "civil union"? They just aren't fit for marriage, you see.
And why would this alternate marriage-like institution be created? Simply because the people of the time are too prejudiced to stomach the idea of whites marrying blacks--in other words, create a separate-but-equal institution to accomodate the prejudice of the majority.
The only problem is, accomodation of prejudice does not rise to the level of a compelling state interest for creating a second marriage-like institution, which is what the California court ruled. In my opinion, this ruling is no different than Perez v. Sharp, which struck down the ban on interracial marriage. This is how history will eventually view it, anyhow.
An open question - Sir Four