Equality California

The U.S. Supreme Court tossed out any racially based limitations on marriage in the landmark 1967 Loving v. Virginia case. In the unanimous decision, the court said that “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.”

The above is the closing paragraph of the CNN article about the racist Louisiana judge who would not marry an interracial couple.  In my previous post “Empty Spaces/A Moment without Hapas“, I mention briefly my support of same-sex marriage, but to not draw away from the point of the post, I didn’t elaborate.  I am elaborating now…

Why can it not also be “…the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person based on their gender resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the state”?

Why is it that my gay friends are told that they cannot live life like every other American because they prefer to be with someone of the same gender romantically?  Why is it America’s business who you love?

Everyone in this country (with varying age ranges) can have the ability to marry in love, in lust, in drunken 48-hour wedding ceremonies with a backdrop of shiny lights and desert dust so long as the other person is of the opposite sex.  It doesn’t matter if anyone approves or disapproves of any of these decisions.  You have the right to marry whomever you want except…and that word bothers me except…

“…except the person you love because you shouldn’t have matching chromosomes…?”

No.

In all this uproar about not allowing for interracial dating, let’s remember we still have more to do to ensure equality for all.

-cct

Below is a song I’ve featured before, my “So Special” song for Marriage Equality:

I don't know Tiger Woods, but he's mixed race and so is his family. Imagine golf without him...I know, right?

Today a news article about an interracial marriage being denied by a Louisiana Justice of the Peace circulated the internet (See Huffington Post).  You can read the article; it’s sentiments need not be repeated here.  It’s been less than 50 years since the ruling of Loving v. Virginia (1967) and regardless of the prejudice an individual might have against interracial marriage, interracial couples can marry.  That’s the lay of the law.  I won’t bog down this post with my desire that this same litmus test should apply to same-sex couples (just be aware that I think it should).

The point of this post is a conversation I had with one of my former roommates today when the Huffington Post article was circulating.  In the midst of our conversation, I took a moment and looked back on the 26 years of my life and consciously thought about how different my life would be if interracial marriages and couples were outlawed everywhere.

And immediately the image that came to mind was…empty spaces.

It was a realization in the immediate: The conversation I was having with my former roommate would not be happening because she is the daughter of a mixed race couple.

It was a realization in family and friendships:  The people around me, who have inspired me and have shaped who I am, so many of them are children of interracial relationships or are in them or were in them.

The more I thought about this idea, the more people disappeared out of my life, the more I found that the empty spaces were becoming me.

Where would I be?  Who would I be?  If so many people were gone or whose choice in partner was not allowed?  How would they be different?  Would I even know them?

Thankfully, I am not an empty space, and my life is rich with people of all different backgrounds.  But prejudices will always exists and hopefully laws will continue on to say: you can believe whatever you want, but you are not allowed to make anyone an empty space.

-cct

Due to conversations with my co-worker, I am also calling this post A Moment Without Hapas.