Defending Your Life #1: Majority Rules?

When I began The New Civil Rights Movement, I wrote “to be ignorant because information is not readily available is inexcusable… This website is dedicated to keeping you informed of all the events in the gay rights arena, especially gay marriage. Because weddings are bliss, ignorance is not.” One of the overwhelming issues about the gay marriage debate is that those who oppose same-sex marriage have not put forward a sufficient, reasoned argument supporting their position. “The Bible says” is not sufficient – not in a country where there is supposed to be a clear separation of church and state. 

But we need to arm ourselves with information if we are going to win this battle. Part of the reason Proposition 8 in California won was because we just didn’t win people over. We didn’t give them good reasons why we should be allowed to be married. Attorney Evan Wolfson, who is the founder of Freedom To Marry, and wrote “Why Marriage Matters”, has a letter in today’s New York Times. In it, he makes some compelling arguments for marriage, including this one:

The California Supreme Court “in 1948 became the first to strike down race restrictions on the freedom to marry. Polls at that time showed that 90 percent of Americans opposed marriage equality. In the best-named case ever, Loving v. Virginia, the United States Supreme Court in 1967 upheld marriage equality nationwide, despite polls showing 70 percent opposed… If fundamental rights can be stripped from a minority on a mere show of hands, why bother having courts and constitutions?”

So, when someone says to you, “This is a democracy. Majority rules!” you know what to say to them, right?