Marriage Revisited

I have written in the past about the landmark decision of Loving v. Virginia in which the U.S. Supreme Court stuck down laws banning whites and blacks from marrying. I have also written about how the courts are becoming involved in the issue of gay marriage. But I have yet to suggest that these two cases raise the same issue, although I believe they may. Anna Quindlen of Newsweek has a nice short piece in this week's issue explaining how these cases are basically the same. Surprisingly, the question of whether this is a civil rights issue on par with issues raised by racial discrimination is somewhat controversial. And ironically polls show that a vast majority of African-Americans oppose gay marriage. So give this question some thought. Are laws prohibiting gay marriage the same as those which prohibited people of different races from marrying?