Pride & Opinions

I saw this article at the Family Equality Council Blog, and thought it would make a good follow up to my post earlier about assimilation, if nothing else than as a counter-point. Plus, it speaks to one of my favorite topics, which is the language used to describe various political functions.

As you know, Valentine’s Day (Today!) is also Freedom to Marry Day, which describes itself as a “gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide.” But they stress that, although allowing GLBT folks to get married is one of the aims, they’d prefer you not describe the political movement as one to “win gay marriage. Why? Simple. As Evan Wolfson, the executive director, explains,

Same-sex couples, their kids and loved ones, and those of us who favor equal justice in America are not working to win “gay marriage.� We are working to win the freedom to marry, ending the current unfair denial of marriage to those who are already doing the work of marriage in their own lives.

Phrases such as “gay marriage� or “same-sex marriage� imply that same-sex couples are asking for something other than marriage. They imply that same-sex couples deserve something different or lesser than the security, protections, safety-net, and respect that married couples cherish. And they play into the right-wing’s fear-mongering that gay people are a threat to marriage, that equality and inclusion would somehow unacceptably “redefine� the law (in a country dedicated to those very values), and that “Defense of Marriage� is the answer to committed couples seeking to participate in a precious institution.

Marriage is not defined by who is excluded from it, and gay people are not the first to challenge its denial. This year we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the first court ruling striking down race restrictions on who could marry whom. In Perez v. Sharp, the California Supreme Court held that “the essence of the right to marry is freedom to join in marriage with the person of one’s choice.� The court explained that “human beings are bereft of worth and dignity by a doctrine that would make them as interchangeable as trains�; when you are denied the freedom to marry the person precious and irreplaceable to you, it’s not like you can just catch the next one.

I think he makes a persuasive argument; do you?

GLBT, marriage, gay marriage, freedom to marry week, valentine’s day, marriage equality

GLBT, marriage, gay marriage, freedom to marry week, valentine’s day, marriage equality