Quote of the Day: Mildred Loving on Marriage

Late this afternoon, the husband and I and a number of friends went and saw the movie "Loving" that follows the case of Richard and Mildred Loving and their prosecution by Virginia authorities for their violation of Virginia's miscegenation statute and the Loving's subsequent legal battles that culminated in the United States Supreme Court ruling in Loving v. Virginia, which struck down state bans on interracial marriage nationwide.  For those who have not seen the movie, it is exceedingly well done and is a must see.  Indeed, it ought to be required viewing in high school government classes.  The film was a vivid reminder of just how horrible non-whites were treated in Virginia not really that long ago, not to mention the inhumanity often meted out by the majority against those who look different or believe differently.   The film was also a harsh reminder that many of Donald Trump's supporters, including the 81% of evangelical Christians who voted for him, would like to return America to the days prior to the Loving v. Virginia ruling and the civil rights laws enacted in the 1960'2.

Meanwhile, Trump has talked out of both sides of his mouth on the issue of same sex marriage as he has sought to prostitute himself to the evangelical Christian and professional Christian sets.  Mildred Loving made a statement before her death in 2008 that ought to be the guiding rule on marriage. Here are highlights via The Advocate:

"Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the 'wrong kind of person' for me to marry," "I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry."

Meanwhile, what was one of the justifications used to support Virginia's ban (and other states') on interracial marriage?  Religion, of course, that great pestilence that throughout history has been used to justify so much death and evil.  If one needs a reminder, here is what Caroline County Circuit Court judge Leon M. Brazile wrote when he first convicted Richard and Mildred Loving:

Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.

Frighteningly, it is judges like Brazile who Trump may now nominate to the United States Supreme Court.  That prospect ought to terrify decent, moral Americans.  

  

More Lies from Concerned Bitches for America

Never allowing the truth to get in the way of their agenda of working to reduce gays to quasi-criminal status and inflict their version of theocracy on the nation, the bitches (who are actually mostly men it seems) at Concerned Women for America have come up with a new round of fiction under their "Legal Studies" page that looks at the issue of gay marriage. Putting aside the fact that most of their attorneys went to non-ABA accredited religious affiliated "law schools" - which means that in most states they could not even be admitted to the bar - the facts are simply wrong or unsupported by any credible evidence. Naturally, most of the lies spewing forth use the old "choice myth" as the underlying linch pin. Here are some highlights from CWA's blather with my remarks following in italics:

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One of the key figures of the 20th Century's civil rights battles passed away. Mildred Loving, whose marriage to her husband, Richard, was a violation of Virginia's laws prohibiting interracial marriage died May 2nd. Mildred was black, Richard white. Their marriage led to the famous legal case Loving v. Virginia which found laws against interracial marriage unconstitutional. The case was decided on June 12, 1967. Modern battles over marriage have moved well beyond unchangeable characteristics like race. Now those battles focus on the choices in sexual relationships which people make. The homosexual activist movement would like Americans to believe that homosexuality is an unchangeable characteristic just like race. They are abusing the memory of people like Mildred Loving who has said that she never wanted to be a hero, she just wanted to get married but was not allowed to do so because she was born black. Radical homosexual activists want you to believe that they, too, are "born that way." The reality is otherwise.

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The first inconvenient truth omitted by the bitches at CWA is that Mildred Loving supported gay marriage rights. As did Coretta Scott King, by the way. But then again, other than Don Wildmon's American Family Association and Focus on the Family, CWA is generally one of the most dishonest and untruthful of the "Christian" family vales organizations.

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Tragically, the homosexual activists reject this reality. They insist against all the evidence that homosexuals are "born that way." And, they think nothing of discriminating against people who disagree. For example, recently Concerned Women for America (CWA) has been defending a modern hero of civil rights, Crystal Dixon. Dixon was fired from her job simply because she pointed out the reality that sexual choices are not civil rights.

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Actually, Crystal Dixon was offered a transfer to a different position where she would not be charged with enforcing the University's non-discrimination policy which includes sexual orientation, but she chose to be a martyr. But then, CWA never cares for the truth. Just disseminating untruths to further its Christianist agenda.

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Dixon noted, "As a black woman who happens to be an alumnus of the University of Toledo's Graduate School, an employee and business owner, I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are 'civil rights victims.' Here's why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a black woman. I am genetically and biologically a black woman and very pleased to be so as my Creator intended. Daily, thousands of homosexuals make a life decision to leave the gay lifestyle evidenced by the growing population of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex Gays) and Exodus International just to name a few."

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This claim of "thousands" or more typically "hundreds of thousands" has NO, NADA, ZERO documentation to back it up. In fact, these groups do NOT maintain data - probably because it would prove that their progams do not work. Instead, one sees the same old tired "ex-gays for pay" making the same untrue statements. Or at least until they "fall of the wagon" and revert back to their true sexual orientation. Think John Paulk, Michael Johnston, and a host of others who have proven to be frauds. When Robert Spitzer did a study in 2003 that has been repeatedly misquoted by Christianist organizations, he admited that he had "great difficulty" finding people who claimed to have changed their orientation from gay to straight. After searching for nearly a year and a half, Spitzer could only find 274 possibilities. Of those, half had been referred by Exodus and NARTH. Even then, That 86% of the men and 63% of the female subjects emerged from therapy still having feelings of attraction to persons of the same-sex. CWA is well aware of these inconvenient trutys, yet never lets this reality get in the way of pushing the "choice myth."

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Here, then, is the difference between the marriage battles now and those of 40 years ago. Then, marriage was fought over unchangeable, immutable characteristics - race. Today, marriage is fought over freely-made sexual choices like homosexuality and polygamy. Clearly, marriage among people of different ethnic backgrounds is a reasonable and moral decision. Marriage among people of the same sex is to abolish the meaning and purpose of marriage altogether. As we approach the anniversary of the Loving decision, it is good to remember the key to the case: race is unchangeable and immutable. Homosexuality is something that can change - and freedom is found from this sin as from all others in Jesus Christ.

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How do you know when a CWA spokesman is lying? When their lips are moving. Their goal is to mislead the ignorant and unwary and those who do not know correct/true history. I remain dumbfounded who those who profess to be Christians can knowingly lie with no remorse whatsoever.

Deaths: Mildred Loving - Plaintiff in Loving v. Virginia

Other than during its golden age of enlightenment and accomplishment during the days of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, et al, in the latter part of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century, Virginia has all too often lead up the rear guard of enlightened and progressive states. Jim Crow laws, massive resistance to de-segregation and a ban on interracial marriage are examples of some of Virginia's less than noble contributions to history.

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Thus, it was with sadness that I learned of the death of Mildred Loving, one of the plaintiffs in Loving v. Virginia, wherein the U. S. Supreme Court struck down the laws banning interracial marriage. That was in 1967, a mere three years before my undergraduate class at the University of Virginia entered UVA as the first co-ed class. Unfortunately, the descendants of the same people who passed the laws struck down in 1967 continue their bigotry against equal marriage rights for all - most recently in their campaign against gay and lesbian citizens. Here are highlights from 365gay.com on Ms. Loving's death at age 68:

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(Richmond, Virginia) Mildred Loving, a black woman whose challenge to Virginia's ban on interracial marriage led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling striking down such laws nationwide, has died, her daughter said Monday. Peggy Fortune said Loving, 68, died Friday at her home in rural Milford.

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Loving and her white husband, Richard, changed history in 1967 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld their right to marry. The ruling struck down laws banning racially mixed marriages in at least 17 states. They had married in Washington in 1958, when she was 18. Returning to their Virginia hometown, they were arrested within weeks and convicted on charges of "cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth," according to their indictments.

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After the Supreme Court ruled, the couple returned to Virginia, where they lived with their children Donald, Peggy and Sidney. Richard Loving died in 1975 in a car accident that also injured his wife. In a rare interview with The Associated Press last June, Loving said she wasn't trying to change history - she was just a girl who once fell in love with a boy. "It wasn't my doing," Loving said. "It was God's work." The Loving case was cited in the 2003 Massachusetts case that led to same-sex marriage in that state.