There is one bright spot on the national landscape for gay and lesbian people: Connecticut is now allowing same-sex marriage after a 4-3 state Supreme Court granted marriage equality. For many, the day was celebrated happily as couples took advantage of the new law and tied the knot.
At the same time, activists are planning nationwide protests against the passage of California’s Proposition 8 this weekend.
Gay marriage advocates said they were planning nationwide demonstrations this weekend in more than 175 cities and outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington. A Seattle blogger was trying to organize simultaneous protests outside statehouses and city halls in every state Saturday.
In New York City, several hundred protesters planned to march later Wednesday on the Mormon Temple in Manhattan. The church had encouraged its members to support the California ban.
Amid the joy in Connecticut and the anger and disappointment in California comes word that, according to one anti-marriage equality group, allowing same-sex marriage is akin to “mob rule.”
Kris Mineau of the Massachusetts Family Institute, which opposes gay marriage, said planned and past protests, some of which have been angry in tone and targeted churches, are meant to intimidate the California high court into invalidating Proposition 8.
“We are a nation that goes by the rule of law,” he said. “No court should ever be intimidated by mob rule. And that’s what our opponents right now are trying to do.”
It’s amazing to me that Kris would be able to say that sentence with a straight (pardon the pun) face. Mob rule? Excuse me? Which mob was it that voted to deny the basic civil right of forming valid contracts to another—less moblike—group of people? The majority equals the “mob,” Kris—and you, my friend, are part of that “mob.”
Allowing public referendums on questions of civil rights is a blatant violation of the intent of our nation’s founders. A legislative body was constituted to make laws, and a judicial system set up to interpret and adjudicate those laws to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. These ballot measures erase that protection and lead to intimidation by mob rule. Wanting a law to allow me to marry my partner isn’t intimidation. Ballot measures pushed by a bunch of well-financed, self-righteous goons who use fear tactics (those filthy queers will teach your kids about sex and marry your dog!) to induce the majority of the population to enshrine discriminatory laws, however, clearly is.
Whenever we feel the need to let the majority rule and the minority suffer, we would do well to remember that Pilate wanted to pardon Jesus. It was a majority rules “ballot measure” of sorts that put Jesus on the cross.
