The state of Washington passed a marriage equality bill Wednesday. It is the seventh state in the country that has full legal recognition for same-sex relationships.
All this work is coming on the heels of New York passing such a bill, but this momentum is beginning to trouble anti-equality organizations.
In New Jersey, legislators are trying to put together a bill that would mirror New York’s marriage equality bill. Unfortunately, the governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, has stated that he will veto the bill so that a referendum can be sent to the people for them to decide on the issue.
New Jersey is a state where direct democracy and referendums are not an automatic part of the system. The legislature has to sanction such an event before a referendum can be sent to the people.
Christie made this statement so he did not have to politically deal with this issue, but he brings up the idea of referendums as a way for the people to be involved in civil rights.
However, Christie is forgetting his own state’s history with referendums and civil rights.
In 1915, the New Jersey legislature sent a women’s suffrage bill to the people, but not surprisingly the male population voted it down. This shows that these two parts of our democratic system are not compatible. The U.S. Constitution lays down certain rights that cannot be stripped from any individual. The right to marry is one of those rights.
The Supreme Court ruled that marriage was a fundamental right when it struck down laws in the south that forbade interracial marriage — and if referendums had been sent to the people on desegregation, do you think the majority white populations in the south would have voted to change their system?
The idea is simple: We are given certain rights in this country that cannot be taken away by the majority. Our Constitution does all it can to protect the freedoms of the many minorities of this country.
Anti-equality organizations have used this type of direct democracy to ban same-sex marriage in 28 states, including Oklahoma, which makes it one of the largest efforts to subvert the rights of a single minority in this country.
Their main tool to fight the marriage equality movement is based on the belief that public polling is on their side. Maine and California allowed gay marriage in some form, but those laws were overturned by referendums sent to the people.
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered population has had to watch as state after state makes laws and sends out referendums that ban us from being able to pursue the happiness our nation has established as a birthright.
In the coming months, more states will pass marriage equality laws, and the certain groups will try to overturn that progress with a great tool of American democracy.
This column is not meant to look down on direct democracy like referendums. There are many issues across the country where this option is best for making sound democratic decisions, but when it comes to civil liberties, this type of process only can hold our society back.
Christie’s comments showcase the problems the LGBT community and other minorities face when direct democracy practices are used to protect the views and sensibilities of the majority.
That is not the way our system works, and as we move forward on these issues, the political discourse will come to understand that fact.
On Tuesday, the 9th Circuit Court of appeals, which includes California and eight other Western states, ruled that Proposition 8 was not constitutional. This most likely will take the case against referendum bans on marriage equality, like California’s Prop 8, to the Supreme Court.
Once it finally has made it there, the justices will have to decide once and for all the issue of gay marriage. I have every hope the justices will come down on the side of marriage equality and rule that these referendum bans are onerous laws that are meant to target and oppress a minority group, and that they cannot be upheld without legitimate constitutional justification.
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BoomerSooner25 3 months, 1 week ago
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