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Boston Globe, October 25, 2003
At a crossroads on gay unions
By John Lewis
From time to time, America comes to a crossroads. With confusion and
controversy, it's hard to spot that moment. We need cool heads, warm
hearts, and America's core principles to cleanse away the distractions.
We are now at such a crossroads over same-sex couples' freedom to
marry. It is time to say forthrightly that the government's
exclusion of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters from civil marriage officially degrades
them and their families. It denies them the basic human right to marry the person they love. It denies them numerous legal protections for their families.
This discrimination is wrong. We cannot keep turning our backs on gay
and lesbian Americans. I have fought too hard and too long against
discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on
sexual orientation.
I've heard the reasons for opposing civil marriage for same-sex
couples. Cut through the distractions, and they stink of the same fear, hatred, and
intolerance I have known in racism and in bigotry.
Some say let's choose another route and give gay folks some legal
rights but call it something other than marriage. We have been down that road
before in this country. Separate is not equal. The rights to liberty and
happiness belong to each of us and on the same terms, without regard to either
skin color
or sexual orientation.
Some say they are uncomfortable with the thought of gays and lesbians
marrying. But our rights as Americans do not depend on the approval of
others. Our rights depend on us being Americans.
Sometimes it takes courts to remind us of these basic principles. In
1948, when I was 8 years old, 30 states had bans on interracial marriage,
courts had upheld the bans many times, and 90 percent of the public disapproved of
those marriages, saying they were against the definition of marriage, against God's law.
But that year, the California Supreme Court became the first court in
America to strike down such a ban. Thank Goodness some court finally had the
courage to say that equal means equal, and others rightly followed, including
the US Supreme Court 19 years later.
Some stand on the ground of religion, either demonizing gay people or
suggesting that civil marriage is beyond the Constitution. But
religious rites and civil rights are two separate entities. What's at stake here is legal
marriage, not the freedom of every religion to decide on its own
religious views and ceremonies.
I remember the words of John Kennedy when his presidential candidacy
was challenged because of his faith: "I believe in an America that is
officially neither Catholic, Protestant, nor Jewish - where no public official
either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the pope, the
National Council of Churches, or any other ecclesiastical source - where no religious
body
seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials - and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is
treated as an act against all."
Those words ring particularly true today. We hurt our fellow citizens
and our community when we deny gay people civil marriage and its
protections and responsibilities. Rather than divide and discriminate, let us come
together and create one nation. We are all one people. We all live in the American
house.
We are all the American family. Let us recognize that the gay people
living in our house share the same hopes, troubles, and dreams. It's time we
treated them as equals, as family.
John Lewis, a Democratic congressman from Georgia, was one of the
original speakers at the 1963 [Civil Rights] March on Washington and is
author of "Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement."
Congressman Lewis' website is: http://www.house.gov/johnlewis/
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