Gay Marriage and the Constitution

I am a firm believer that once religious based bigotry is stripped away from the issue of same sex marriage, there remains no legitimate reason under the U.S. Constitution for the disparate treatment of same sex couples under the CIVIL marriage laws. Both the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the freedom of religion promised by the First Amendment demand that ALL citizen be afforded equality under the CIVIL laws. Churches and denominations are free to teach whatever they want within their walls and to deny religious or church marriage to same sex couples as they wish. But CIVIL marriage should be outside the scope of what religious organizations control. Otherwise, there is a de facto establishment of one religious view on marriage. Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine, School of Law, has an article in Saturday Night Magazine that looks at LGBT progress on the marriage front and why marriage equality matters. In my opinion, the effort to deny same sex couples marriage rights highlights the entire agenda of the Christianists to keep LGBT individuals as inferior citizens based solely on religious belief. Here are some article highlights:
*
Within this decade, a major step to equality has occurred in much of the world. Same sex marriage is now allowed in Canada and most nations in Western Europe. In 2008, two state supreme courts, in California and Connecticut, held that gays and lesbians have the right to marry. They joined Massachusetts as the first states in this country to provide for marriage equality. Until California voters amended the California Constitution in November to outlaw same sex marriage, over one in eight people in the United States lived in a state where same sex marriage was allowed.
*
Why does this matter? Most studies estimate that about one tenth of the population is gay. Laws in every state traditionally have provided enormous benefits to married couples that were unavailable to others. These statutes concern important matters such as child custody, inheritance, insurance coverage, and tax benefits. When I got married, my wife could immediately get coverage under my insurance and could inherit from me if I died. But gays and lesbians are usually permanently denied these benefits that married couples receive automatically.
*
Beyond the tangible benefits, marriage is the primary way in which people express their love and desire for permanent commitment. Denying marriage equality to gays and lesbians is a powerful statement that society still believes them to be second-class (or worse) citizens.
*
Litigating in state courts under state constitutions has been a deliberate choice by advocates of marriage equality to keep the matter out of the hands of the United States Supreme Court because of the sense that there are not five Justices there who would vote in favor of marriage equality. So long as the advocates of marriage equality do not present any claims under the United States Constitution or under federal law, the United States Supreme Court cannot hear the matter.
*
[G]ays and lesbians will have children whether or not they can marry. Gay men will have children through surrogacy and adoption; lesbians will have children through artificial insemination and adoption. Thus, the issue is not whether gays and lesbians should have children, but whether their children should have the benefits of married parents. If one believes that marriage promotes family stability, then allowing marriage equality benefits children of gays and lesbians.
*
Every opinion poll shows that views on marriage equality are often a function of age. Whereas voters over 60 tend to oppose same sex marriage, voters under 25 strongly favor allowing it. This dramatic difference in views means that it is only a matter of time before same sex marriage is allowed in most of the United States. Gays and lesbians will be accorded the same ability to experience the joys of marriage — and the same opportunity to experience its frustrations and disappointments — as heterosexuals always have had.