Gay marriage: African-Americans paved the way for passage of law

ALTHOUGH some African-Americans remain vehemently opposed to same-sex marriage, it was the civil-rights movement that paved the way.

The debate over same-sex marriage has proved a controversial topic among African-Americans. Because of an entrenched religious history and struggle for equality, blacks remain sensitive to the needs of those denied basic human rights but extremely conservative in applying a Christian-values litmus test to all moral subject matter.

Broad debates about the future of the nuclear family, and the crisis of fatherhood in the black community, have garnered attention from the pulpit to the dinner table. The debate over gay marriage has presented a unique stumbling block in which our values don't always mirror our aspirations.

African-Americans are no strangers to having to redraw the lines. Statistics continue to show that blacks are the least likely of all ethnic groups to marry at all.

For generations we have been raised by grandmothers or nurtured by aunts and uncles, and have found ourselves estranged from the mothers who bore us, the fathers we never knew, and sisters and brothers who all had different last names. In some respects, the civil-rights movement gave birth to a new kind of freedom - freedom to redefine the meaning of family and empower individuals, not governments, in the quest for love.

IT SEEMS ONLY fitting to reference a quote from Mildred Loving, the iconic plaintiff in the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia, which made race-based marriage restrictions unconstitutional.

Loving, a black woman who fought for the legal validation of her marriage to a white man, stated poignantly that marriage equality for gay couples is "what Loving, and loving, are all about."

Even though New York's marriage law was a legislative, not judicial, decision, the framework that the Supreme Court established to abolish laws written to deny blacks and whites the freedom to intermarry now serves as a moral blueprint in the fight for marriage equality.

The question has become, how can the state infringe upon an individual's right to love whoever he or she chooses? New York has finally answered that. In a 33-29 vote last Friday, the New York State Senate approved the Marriage Equality Bill, leading the way for gay couples to get married across the state.

Most encouraging is the fact that this came about in a legislature sharply divided on partisan lines. The Democratic majority in the Assembly led the charge, and the GOP-controlled Senate managed to complete the job in a bipartisan effort that conveys evolving attitudes on the subject.

There were strong opinions on all sides, and religious fervor clashed with questions of constitutional freedom. The lone dissenting Democratic vote came from Sen. Ruben Diaz, a Pentecostal minister who represents the second-poorest district in the Bronx and has mostly black and Hispanic constituents.

Before the vote, Diaz offered his final warning that the legislature's decision would forever alter the institution of marriage.

But even Diaz has a complicated perspective on this matter. In a 2009 interview with the New York Times, he revealed that two of his 16 siblings were gay, and he also has a lesbian granddaughter. When asked about them, he said, "I love them . . . they are my family."

The essential compromise that removed the final hurdle to New York's passage of marriage equality involved the conservative sticking point that legal protections be included for religious organizations that don't want their facilities or services to be made available for weddings of same-sex couples.

Though many gay-rights organizations opposed these measures, the very issue conveys an underlying truth that marriage is, in fact, a civil and social institution, and therefore should not be limited or manipulated by religious ideology.

With the passage of the Marriage Equality Bill, New York has proved once again that Lady Liberty is alive and well, her light shining bright.

Edward W. Williams is a political and economic analyst for MSNBC. This piece first appeared on TheRoot (www.TheRoot.com).