Happily, Our Nation is Moving Towards Marriage Equality

By Arthur Joel Katz

My neighbors, Dan and Ian, celebrated their wedding after a relationship of 38 years on Saturday, June 22. It was a wonderfully moving occasion. Dan and Ian stood on a platform built along the Saucon Creek as a minister, a woman, conducted a ceremony that had many Buddhist elements, although neither Dan nor Ian are Buddhists. The ceremony was quite touching, especially the portion in which each man read a short statement about why he loved the other. If you cry  at weddings, you would have cried at this one.

The party that followed was as elaborate (but informal) as any I ever attended. The grounds of Dan and Ian’s house had been made more beautiful than they usually are by the addition of many trees, flowers, fences, archways made from twigs, tents, painted chairs and an amphitheater constructed of planks and logs. The food was indescribably great, as was a very varied assortment of liquor which flowed like wine—and the wine was excellent. One of the napkins handed out listed 28 (if I remember correctly) relatives of each spouse, who all attended. What made the wedding even more fun was the presence of many neighbors. And one couple said they had been married on the Old Mill Bridge, which overlooked the scene.

(The day after the wedding Dan and Ian brought over two huge vases of flowers. We were touched by these gifts, but somewhat overwhelmed. They are with us as I write.)

As luck would have it, early in the following week the Supreme Court of the United States announced the decision in two cases affecting gay marriage. In the first, the majority opinion was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy. It found that the federal Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional, in that it violated the rights of gays and lesbians to equal protection under the Constitution of the United States.

A second case threw out attempts to overturn Proposition 8 in California. Prop 8 was an amendment to the California constitution passed by voters there which outlawed all marriages except those between a man and woman. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote an opinion for the majority of the Supreme Court which held that proponents of Prop 8 lacked “standing” to challenge a decision of the California Supreme Court and a Federal District Court that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional under the federal Constitution. Effectively this meant that the marriage of people of the same sex in California could not be stopped.

The irony was that Dan and Ian had to get married in New York two days before the June 22 ceremony, because New York permits same-sex marriage and Pennsylvania does not.

Happily, our nation is moving towards the position that marriage is an act of love, and that people are entitled to marry without regard to the sex of the person they love. Bravo!