Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Marriage and Mass: The Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled that the state must allow same-sex marriages. Similar to what happened in Vermont, the court has given the state legislature 180 days to make a new law.

I've argued before that preventing gays from getting married is unconstitutional because it violates the "equal protection" clause of the 14th Amendment. And it's inherently unfair to deny couples the legal protections that come from marriage just because they are the same sex.

The tradition of a marriage being between a man and a woman is irrelevant. Tradition used to dictate that a married couple had to be the same race and the same religion. Now such discrimination sounds archaic.

I know conservatives are going to try to fight this. There's even talk about a constitutional amendment. This homophobia actually weakens the institution of marriage instead of protecting it.