The Supreme Court of Massachusetts today declared that gay people must be afforded the same rights to marriage as straights. In particular, the justices noted:

“The history of our nation has demonstrated that separate is seldom, if ever, equal,” the four justices who ruled in favor of gay marriage wrote in the advisory opinion. A bill that would allow for civil unions but falls short of marriage would make for “unconstitutional, inferior, and discriminatory status for same-sex couples,”

Which is something that I’ve always said: a Civil Union is a “separate but equal” solution to avoid offending the Religious Wrong, and it is no more constitutional than the “separate but equal” schools that were offered to appease Southern racists back in the Jim Crow era. (See my blog post “Let’s Abolish Gay Marriage” from Nov 21, 2003.)

Of course the backlash has already started. So-called Family groups are mobilizing in Massachusetts to create a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between man and woman only. But that measure won’t make it to the ballot until 2006 at earliest, so between now and then, Massachusetts gays (and gays from other states, certainly) will be married.

So then what? In 2006, if the amendment goes through, will the married gays then lose their marriage rights? I guess so.

Isn’t it amazing just how much the Religious Wrong is fearful of homosexuals? I still can’t see how giving gays the right to marry ruins marriage for the straight folk, and I still can’t see why anyone would want to enshrine discrimination against one group of people into the Constitution. The only thing gay marriage does to straight marriage is that it puts gays and straights on equal footing in the eyes of the law — that must be what has them so worried! They can no longer look down their noses at the “sinful” gays.

That’s an awfully strange point-of-view from a group that believes we’re all equal in God’s eyes, and that only God should judge us.

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