Matt Coles, director of the American Civil Liberties Union LGBT & AIDS Project, takes a crack at that question for The Advocate:
Discrimination requires a rationale. The rationale for treating gay people differently has always been that we were not capable of the kind of love and commitment that straight people share.
The fight over marriage puts the truth of that rationale squarely at issue. If the love we share and the commitments we make (which, as with straight people, vary widely) are not different, there is no rationale for excluding us from marriage. More critically, there is no rationale for excluding us from jobs, from parenting, even from the prom. A person's sexual orientation, as the Court said, will not be a legitimate reason to deny a person rights.
Who cares about that? Every gay person should. Everyone who has a gay friend or family member should. Every person who cares about the Constitution's promise of equal protection should.
That's an awfuly good answer. Click here to read the entire essay.
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You're absolutely right -- Matt Coles nails it.
ReplyDeleteI know this is incredibly naive of me -- but I just wish the question didn't have to be asked, at least not in the context of GLBT people having to defend their right.
Peace.