ELIZABETH MCINTYRE

scndhanddreams:

jasencomstock:

theatlantic:

What Straight Allies Need to Understand About Gay Marriage and States’ Rights

Too many people whose marriages are not up for debate have been griping that President Obama’s announcement was too little, too late. He’s endorsing federalism, argued Adam Serwer in Mother Jones. He’s championing state’s rights, complained left-of-center blogger Digby: “This is the essence of retrograde, reactionary politics and there’s a long history of these ‘sovereign’ states exercising their ‘rights’ to deny minorities their freedom.” Even House Assistant Minority Leader Jim Clyburn was upset with the president’s approach. “I depart from the president on the state-by-state approach. If you consider this to be a civil right, and I do, I don’t think civil rights ought to be left up to a state-by-state approach,” he said Monday.

Such critics of Obama are wrong. They are wrong about what the administration has done and said, wrong on the politics of gay marriage, and — most important — they are wrong on the law.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

YES!!!

VERY interesting read. Never thought of divorce law as the better parallel over anti-miscegenation laws, but it certainly seems to be on its face. However, not clear why this is targeted at “straight allies,” rather than “people who don’t necessarily understand the history of marriage law.”

Huh, interesting. I hadn’t thought about the fact that miscegenation laws actually criminalized marriage whereas statutes/amendments re: gay marriage just refuse to recognize the marriages. 

And I think the reason it’s targeted at “straight allies” rather than “people who don’t necessarily understand the history of marriage law” is just that only straight allies would care. If you think marriage should be defined as only the union between a man and a woman, you’re not likely to be particularly sympathetic to Graff’s explanation of LGBT activists’ strategy. 

Though given that surely there are some “straight allies” who are very familiar with marriage legal history, maybe a more accurate headline still would have been: What Straight Allies Who Don’t Know Much About History of American Marriage Laws and Litigation Need to Understand About Gay Marriage and States’ Rights.

Not quite as pithy, though.

(via shoemadeforthecity)