"Freedom is the issue at hand"
Man and woman.
Man and man.
Woman and woman
The former can marry. The latter two cannot.
In 1993, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled its Constitution forbade such discrimination. And the same-sex marriage debate burst onto the national political scene.
The buzzwords are "traditional marriage" and "family values." The targets are gay and lesbian Americans everywhere.
In the years since the Hawaii Supreme Court's decision, 34 of our "united" states have united with the federal government in proactive discrimination.
Hawaiian, Alaskan, Californian, Nebraskan and other states' voters have declared opposite-sex couples superior to same-sex couples through ballot initiatives. More than half the state legislatures have passed specific legislation prohibiting same-sex marriages. They joined Texas, which had specifically outlawed same-sex marriages in 1973. And in 1996, Congress and President Clinton did the same thing.
All to stop something no state has ever allowed: "Gay marriage."
Of the four major-party candidates for president or vice president this past year, all except one said they were opposed to same-sex marriage.
The one who didn't oppose same-sex marriage on its face: conservative Republican Vice President Richard Cheney.
His Democratic counterpart, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, and President Bush and former Vice President Al Gore all declared, as The New Repulic's Senior Editor Andrew Sullivan called it, an "affirmation of [their] own privilege."
In the vice-presidential debate, Lieberman said he supported "the traditional notion of marriage as being limited to a heterosexual couple."
Bush talked in the second presidential debate about being "tolerant" -- but minutes later announced his "strong" feeling "marriage should be between a man and a woman."
Gore was no better, chiming in agreement with Bush just minutes after invoking the name of Matthew Shepard when declaring his support for hate-crimes laws. Shepard had been "crucified on a split-rail fence by bigots," Gore said as he scolded Bush for his inaction on a Texas hate-crimes bill.
What Gore, Lieberman, our president and many Americans fail to understand is that bigotry is a term enveloping much more than violent anti-lesbian and anti-gay murders.
It also is the denial of legal marriage rights to same-sex couples. Supporting gay and lesbian Americans means much more than supporting hate-crimes or job anti-discrimination laws. It also is supporting two men or two women's right to state-sanctioned marriage.
Cheney, whose daughter Mary is a lesbian living with her partner, understands.
To all of America and in startling contrast to his running mate's position and party platform, he said, "We live in a free society, and freedom means freedom for everybody. We don't get to choose, and shouldn't be able to choose, and say, 'You get to live free, but you don't.'"
While he went on to say gay marriages weren't "a slam dunk," he said states should be allowed to make their own decisions on the issue.
He ended by saying, "I think we ought to do everything we can to tolerate and accommodate whatever kind of relationships people want to enter into."
Vermont reached Cheney's level of understanding earlier in 2000, passing the nation's first civil union bill, a law that gives gay and lesbian couples nearly all the rights and benefits of marriage, as was required of the legislature by the state's Supreme Court.
While Vermont did not grant same-sex marriage, its courts, lawmakers, governor and citizens were right to take on a serious discussion of the issue -- and to move forward.
Ohio joins 14 other states that do not have specific laws prohibiting same-sex marriage.
Although a same-sex marriage ban has been introduced in the Ohio General Assembly for the past several sessions, it has never gotten to the floor for a vote. In fact, the only Mahoning Valley sponsor of the ban bill in the last session of the Assembly was the recently-defeated Ron Hood.
Ohio's lawmakers are in the right, so far as they go. Unlike 35 states in our union, they do not wish to see us move backward.
However, they apparently do not wish to see us move forward either. While the ban bill has not gotten far in Ohio's legislature, neither have bills supporting same-sex marriage, civil unions or any other recognition of gay and lesbian relationships.
Ohioans should take to heart Vice President Cheney's words about what it means to be free and do as Vermont did: Citizens and lawmakers should undertake an honest, substantive discussion about freedom, marriage and love. If our state does that, Ohioans will grow to understand.
And that understanding should lead lawmakers to grant same-sex unions the same status most people take for granted -- marriage.
Please feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] with any opinions or comments about my commentary.