| christian grantham | |||
| Christian Grantham was a student activist in the late 90s and later was a consultant to domestic policy forums for the Clinton Administration as well as events for HRC and GLAAD. | |||
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latest posts
March 16, 2005
Tobias Barrington Wolff, a professor at UC Davis Law School, can't stand hearing gays claim a level of discrimination experienced historically by blacks. Wolff concludes, however, that the mantle of "most oppressed" is hardly a reason for blacks to reject equal rights for gays.
Gay people do have a right to claim a place in that constitutional tradition. The second-class citizenship that gay people continue to endure may not be as bad as Jim Crow and slavery, but it is bad enough.Excluded from open military service, unable to claim federal workplace protection and denied equal support for their families in most parts of the country, gay people can have little doubt what it means for their place within the community when the state refuses to allow them to marry.
Gay people enter a house built by the labor of others when they invoke the tradition of Brown, and they should claim that place with a degree of humility. Nonetheless, they have earned that place through blood and tears. It is no threat to the legacy of the civil rights movement to recognize their claim. It is a vindication.
Thus, the San Francisco court was correct to rely upon Brown in analyzing California's exclusion of gay couples from civil marriage. Brown does not require us to ask who among us is the most oppressed. It requires us to ask how discrimination against any group of people affects their status as equal citizens.
[Different Battle, Same Struggle - LA Times - 03-16-05]
filed under: Equal Marriage Rights
