Yes Virginia, Your Marriage Ban is Unconstitutional

Image from Equality Virginia. Click to sign a letter thanking the couples who challenged the ban.

Image from Equality Virginia. Click to sign a letter thanking the couples who challenged the ban.

I was having a lazy morning scrolling through Facebook, when suddenly the headline appeared: Federal judge strikes down VA gay marriage ban.

 Federal judge strikes down VA gay marriage ban.

The year the ban passed I was not out yet (and not able to vote anyway), but I wore a little necklace that said “Vote No” for the weeks leading up to the election.

Here in the Netherlands, telling people about my home state, the fact that a ban on gay marriage is written into our CONSTITUTION has been a source of great embarrassment and a solid indicator of how backwards we are.

We’re the first state in the Old South to have such a decision.

Obviously, it’s been stayed pending appeal, so this really is a small first step on the path to joining other states like Utah and Kentucky in front of the Supreme Court, probably very soon as cases build up.

But this morning I’m SO excited and proud of my home state.

(Even if we have to continue our admittedly long tradition of being forced to do the right thing by federal authorities.)

Edit: It’s VALENTINE’S DAY. The decision came out on Valentine’s Day! Such romance!

Edit the Second: I’ve read the decision (yes, the whole thing) and am quoting the conclusion here, because it’s very beautiful and I want to be able to find it again in the future.

Each of the parties before the Court recognizes that marriage is a sacred social institution.
The commitment two individuals enter into to love, support each other, and to possibly choose to
nurture children enriches our society. Although steeped in a rich, tradition- and faith-based legacy, Virginia’s Marriage Laws are an exercise of governmental power. For those who choose
to marry, and for their children, Virginia’s laws ensures that marriage provides profound legal,
financial, and social benefits, and exacts serious legal, financial, and social obligations. The government’s involvement in defining marriage, and in attaching benefits that accompany the institution, must withstand constitutional scrutiny. Laws that fail that scrutiny must fall despite the depth and legitimacy of the laws’ religious heritage. The Court is compelled to conclude that Virginia’s Marriage Laws unconstitutionally deny Virginia’s gay and lesbian citizens the fundamental freedom to choose to marry. Government interests in perpetuating traditions, shielding state matters from federal interference, and favoring one model of parenting over others must yield to this country’s cherished protections that ensure the exercise of the private choices of the individual citizen regarding love
and family.

Ultimately, this is consistent with our nation’s traditions of freedom. “[T]he history of our Constitution … is the story of the extension of constitutional rights and protections to people once ignored or excluded.” United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515, 557 (1996). Our nation’s uneven but dogged journey toward truer and more meaningful freedoms for our citizens has brought us continually to a deeper understanding of the first three words in our Constitution: we the people. “We the People” have become a broader, more diverse family than once imagined.

Justice has often been forged from fires of indignities and prejudices suffered. Our triumphs that celebrate the freedom of choice are hallowed. We have arrived upon another moment in history when We the People becomes more inclusive, and our freedom more perfect.

Almost one hundred and fifty four years ago, as Abraham Lincoln approached the cataclysmic rending of our nation over a struggle for other freedoms, a rending that would take his life and the lives of hundreds of thousands of others, he wrote these words: “// can not have failed to strike you that these men ask for just. . . the same thing—fairness, and fairness only. This, sofar as in my power, they, and all others, shall have. ”

The men and women, and the children too, whose voices join in noble harmony with Plaintiffs today, also ask for fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as it is in this Court’s power, they and all others shall have.

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