EDITORIAL: 72 percent and counting
Same-sex couples could enjoy national freedom to marry by June
Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex couples to marry in 2004.
Just over a decade later, 36 states – 72 percent of the country – stand together as a majority, offering the same right and symbolizing the inevitable extinction of an anti-gay marriage America.
It's about time.
The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to hear petition cases from four states – Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky and our own Michigan – this spring. The court could decide once and for all whether same-sex couples have the constitutional right to marry as early as June.
The decision to hear these cases and take another step toward marriage equality puts the Supreme Court on the right side of history.
One of the earliest appearances of same-sex marriage in the judicial system came roughly 30 years ago in October, 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed one of three cases challenging the denial of a marriage license in Minnesota.
In the grand scope of progress and social change, 30 years isn't long. It's barely one third of a lifetime. To put things in perspective, it took 213 years from the time Rhode Island passed the first law restricting slavery in 1652 to the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in America.
Countless slaves who fought for their freedom died before they could see it become a reality. Many who remember that 1972 Supreme Court dismissal, however, have lived to see 36 states go on to address, fight for and eventually grant the freedom of same-sex marriage. They have witnessed dynamic social change and a complete shift of the marriage paradigm in less than a lifetime.
The evolution of same-sex legislation in America reflects the driven, flexible and progressive nature of the population.
Historically, social change is enacted through judicial rulings slowly over time. The Supreme Court creates change bit by bit, never tackling a major issue of contention head on, but rather waiting until it has been broken down enough to make it weak and poised to be struck down in one ruling.
Imagine the social chaos that would have ensued if the Supreme Court had tried to address the constitutionality of racial discrimination in areas like education a mere few years after the end of the Civil War. Rather, the justices gradually acknowledged changing ideas about racial discrimination, putting chinks into the armor of past legislation until America was ready to accept a ruling like Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
The Supreme Court worked its way up to marriage equality in America, engaging in a series of rulings upholding decisions both against and in favor of same-sex couples for several years.
Now, our justices are poised to make the final ruling that will either establish or deny one of the most basic rights for same-sex couples.
If the decision reflects the obvious social climate change cultivated in the last decade, members of a more inclusive and liberal generation will be able to rejoice and celebrate their role in that change.
So let's keep our eyes on the Supreme Court and support turning the page to a new, more equal time in our history.
