To begin simply, let us state this fact: on June 26, 2015, history was made in the United States when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality in all 50 states, with a 5-4 victory.
By definition and by law, this decision provides the LGBT community the fundamental and constitutional right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We deserve to rejoice and celebrate in this wake of equality and acceptance. The journey to marriage equality has been nothing short of a battle for civil rights.
As students at Boston University, we have been privileged with the support and acceptance of a liberal Massachusetts community. After all, the state was the first to legalize same-sex marriage nearly twelve years ago. BU students have even taken matters into their own hands. Cohort Q, an LGBT graduate student group, submitted an amicus curiae to the Supreme Court in March to demonstrate support for the decision to legalize same-sex marriage. But as Massachusetts has been proud to be a part of and witness acceptance and equality, others have continually fought against these efforts.
What we see as a battle for civil rights, others see as a threat to their own right to traditional marriage. Surprisingly, it is this point that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia disagreed with. One of the four dissenting justices in Friday’s decision, Scalia presented a point of view that avoided bigotry and homophobia. The justice’s opposition did not lie entirely within the idea that same-sex marriage threatens the sanctity of his own marriage, but rather that the Constitution does not dictate “intimacy and spirituality” as civil rights.
Even with this historic victory, marriage rights don’t necessarily protect the gay community from the violence or discrimination it has always faced. It’s important to be cognizant of the fact that rulings like these may make the government seem as if they are fully accepting of the LGBT community, even though that is not always the case. One singular policy cannot change hearts and minds. Leaders such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal have pointedly spoken against the decision to legalize same-sex marriage, even though Jindal realizes that the decision is “not surprisingly” based on public opinion polls.
“This decision will pave the way for an all-out assault against the religious freedom rights of Christians who disagree with this decision. This ruling must not be used as a pretext by Washington to erode our right to religious liberty,” Jindal said in a statement today, The Times-Picayune reported.
In addition to state legislators being opposed to the decision, there are still many members of the U.S. Congress that disagree. Until all three branches of our government concur on the universal right to marriage, the true goal of this movement will be unfulfilled.
Even still, what is truly remarkable about this ruling is not only that the LGBT community may marry, but that they will receive liberties that were otherwise unachievable. With a marriage license comes the right to their own children, the right to make decisions when their partners are ill as well as so many more rights that heterosexual couples take for granted. We can only hope that this decision provides those couples with a greater understanding of the struggle that the LGBT community has gone through to achieve seemingly natural rights.
We must understand that this has not simply been a battle for the right to marry, but a battle for natural liberties. Many have died for this cause, just as African Americans and other minority groups have died fighting for their equality and acceptance.
It is no secret that their fight continues, and that violence still plagues the United States. On June 17, nine African American men and women in Charleston, South Carolina, were senselessly murdered by a 21-year-old white man because he allegedly saw them as a threat to his own kind. While June 26 was a day of victory for the LGBT community, it was also a day of sadness, as President Obama delivered a eulogy at the funeral of Charleston shooting victim Clementa Pinckney.
In the midst of celebration, heartbreak creeps up behind us. It seems as though when the nation takes one step forward in minimizing bigotry, hatred and discrimination, it also takes two unrelenting steps back.
What does it take for us to realize our own faults? Nine lives had to be taken in order to start conversation about the removal of the Confederate flag from state landmarks, a flag that is overtly representative of slavery and oppression. It has taken countless school shootings for the nation to consider further education regarding mental illness and discussion about gun safety.
And today, after a landmark victory, there are still those who see the LGBT community as a threat to their own being.
It isn’t going to be easy to continue this fight, but the Supreme Court’s decision is certainly one that aims to change this world as we know it. And while many disagree, we argue that Justice Anthony Kennedy put it best:
“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right…
It is so ordered.”
