Willful Bigotry Makes Me Cry
Tribune Public Forum Letter
Updated: 11/06/2009 05:21:07 PM MST
I am sad that voters in Maine repealed the state’s same-sex marriage law. Don’t they see that “equal” in the Constitution’s guarantee of “equal protection of the laws” means equal and not “only if I like it.” Sexual identity is almost as immutable as one’s sex or skin color, so why don’t people tolerate differences and treat gays as political equals, like they do for blacks and women?
Ay, there’s the rub — the treatment of blacks and women. Even after the Civil Warconstitutional amendments guaranteed that “The right of citizens … shall not be denied … on account of race,” it took another century, a later amendment, many court rulings, strong laws and then another a generation for the older, die-hard racists to die hard before blacks obtained their “inalienable” equal rights. Similarly, it is stunning that men in the 19th century did not include women in the Constitution’s “persons” and “citizens.”
So I take hope. The votes in Maine and in California were close. Soon, as the younger, more tolerant generation rises and people like the 77-year-old LDS Apostle Dallin Oaks pass on, the votes will be reversed. Still, such willful bigotry makes me cry.
Jens Hammer
Brighton