|
An Open
Letter to the African American Community
on Marriage Equality
By
Irene Monroe
Dear Community,
In celebrating Black History Month and
Valentine’s Day, I am reminded of no greater challenge to the
African-American community than the issue of marriage equality.
With the topic still being debated — with
African-American ministers leading the campaign against it and,
ironically, with many African-American lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and queer communities also not wedded to the idea
— I am afraid that the civil rights issues concerning same-sex
marriage as it affects all black families — straight and gay
alike — may very well become a non-issue.
In honoring the contributions and
achievements our ancestors have made toward American democracy,
let us not lose sight of the fact that they have taught us we
must lift as we climb. They have also taught us that we must
always see our work in relationship to one another.
As the beneficiaries of this rich legacy, we
must not forget these teachings.
And if we are looking at how to move forward
on the issue of same-sex marriage, let us remember that an
African-American woman named Mildred Loving set the precedent
for same-sex marriage.
Loving gained notoriety when the U.S. Supreme
Court decided in her favor that anti-miscegenation laws are
unconstitutional. Her crime was this country’s racial and
gender obsession — interracial marriage.
Married to a white man, Loving and her
husband were indicted by a Virginia grand jury in October 1958
for violating the state’s ‘Racial Integrity Act of 1924.”
The trial judge stated the following to the
guilty couple:
|
Almighty God created the races white,
black, yellow, malay and red, and He placed them on
separate continents. And but for the interference with
His arrangement there would be no cause for such
marriages. The fact that He separated the races shows
that he did not intend for the races to mix |
The trial judge suspended their sentences on
the condition the Lovings leave Virginia and not return to the
state together for 25 years. The Lovings initially agreed and
left, but returned soon after and decided to fight their case.
On June 12, 1967, Chief Justice Earl Warren
delivered the opinion of the high court:
|
Marriage is one of the ‘basic civil
rights of man,’ fundamental to our very existence and
survival. To deny this fundamental freedom on so
unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications
embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly
subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of
the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the
State’s citizens of liberty without due process of
law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom
of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial
discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to
marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides
with the individual and cannot be infringed by the
State. These convictions must be reversed |
One of the ways this society has been able to
control and regulate human sexuality and race relations is
through the institution of marriage. Before the Loving case,
there was the case of marriage equality concerning our ancestors
residing in the American South. African-American slaves were
forbidden to marry until the end of the Civil War in 1865. Prior
to that, my ancestors had to “jump over the broom” — an
African-American tradition — to legalize their nuptials before
a crowd of witnesses.
African Americans have always had a tenuous
relationship with the institution of marriage. Therefore, one
can argue that the topic of marriage equality in the U.S. has
always been a black issue.
So I ask: why the opposition or indifference
to same-sex marriage?
Social research shows that African-American
same-gender households have everything to gain in the struggle
for marriage equality and more to lose when states pass
amendments banning marriage equality and other forms of partner
recognition.
In November 2005, Equality Maryland and the
National Black Justice Coalition published “Jumping the Broom:
a Black Perspective on Same-Gender Marriage.” The publication
was produced to initiate dialogue in churches, fraternal
organizations, media outlets, and NAACP chapters.
The statistics revealed the following:
Forty-five percent of black same-sex couples reported stable
relationships of five years or longer. Even if marriage becomes
a legal option, clergy will decide whom they wish to marry. And
20 percent of black men and 24 percent of black women in
same-sex households are denied health care benefits for their
partners by government.
Statistics may be helpful, but what does
same-sex marriage look like in real time and in black face?
Historically, it is about saving black
families, with its focus on spiritual content and not physical
composition.
Contextually, it’s about raising and
protecting our families. It is LGBTQ couples raising their
siblings’ or other family members’ children because those
family members have died of AIDS or are incarcerated or are too
sick.
Multiple family structures presented by
same-sex marriages should not be what the African-American
community opposes because multiple family structures are what
have saved and what are still saving African-American families.
A grandmother or an aunt and uncle — straight or gay —
raising us in their loving homes have anchored our families
through the centuries. And these multiple family structures,
which we have had to devise as a model of resistance and
liberation, have always, by example, shown the rest of society
what really constitutes family.
Since the beheading of St. Valentine in Rome
in the year 270 A.D., marriage has been controlled by heads of
the church and the state — and not by the hearts of lovers.
When Emperor Claudius II issued an edict abolishing marriage
because married men hated to leave their families for battle,
Valentine, known then as the “friend to lovers,” secretly
joined them in holy matrimony. While awaiting his execution,
Valentine fell in love with the jailer’s daughter, and in his
farewell message to his lover, he wrote, “From your
Valentine.”
Both Mildred Loving and St. Valentine knew
the importance of saving families.
If you get tied in a knot and start wondering
what to do concerning the civil rights of same-sex marriage,
remember the Loving spirit of Mildred and the justice acts of
St. Valentine. posted 15 February 2006 |
