The U. S. Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia in 1967 was a major smack down for both the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Virginia Supreme Court which had upheld the state's ban on interracial marriage. Unfortunately, neither the Commonwealth nor the Virginia Supreme Court deems to have learned anything from the 1968 ruling that continues to be a blight on the Commonwealth's reputation. Having argued before the Virginia Supreme Court in Moore v. Virginia Museum of Natural History (Moore was fired by the state museum for being gay), the Virginia Supreme Court seems just as hostile to the rights of minorities today as in was in the 1960's. Indeed, it is probably safe to say that LGBT equality under the civil laws in Virginia will not be forthcoming until the U. S. Supreme Court of the U.S. Congress forces Virginia to end anti-gay discrimination. A story in The Advocate that looks at an HBO documentary that focuses on Loving v. Virginia - and what that court decision says about anti-gay bigotry today. Here are some highlights:
HBO’s new documentary The Loving Story tackles a historic legal case with a timely message about marriage equality — one used to justify an elections director's decision to resign in North Carolina.
The parallels between the landmark 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia and the fight for marriage equality today are undeniable. Forced to flee their home state of Virginia and live in exile in Washington, D.C . — or risk being arrested again for having violated the state’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924 — Mildred and Richard Loving, a mixed-race couple, took the only route they could find to get back home: through the courts.
“They were in a community [in Virginia] that not only tolerated their marriage but really fostered it,” attests filmmaker Nancy Buirski, a straight woman who is well aware that many LGBT couples and families live in communities whose mores may not be aligned with those of their states. “It reminds you what it means for the state to step in and tell us what to do with our personal freedoms.”
When Sherre Toler resigned in early January as director of elections in North Carolina's Harnett County, she cited the case as her reason for taking a stand and what she'd learned from her own interracial relationship, saying she couldn't preside over marriage equality being put up for a vote via an upcoming ballot initiative.
Over the course of the narration-free film, she [Buirski] lets the Lovings and their lawyers speak for themselves. Buirski accomplished this through footage she found that was shot at the time and lay untouched in a closet for more than 40 years.
The footage makes the Lovings’ struggle feel almost present-day — with perhaps one exception: Being made to live outside of Virginia sounds like a not-bad punishment, right? But, as Buirski points out, it was a different time.
“It was a very special place for them,” she says of the Lovings’ community in Virginia, which they were eventually allowed to return to. “They were not trying to be heroes, they were not activists. I feel strongly that we need to honor people like that.”
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