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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Chris Honoré: Reality television and the GOP primaries ... Mural of rescued horses to be unveiled in Talent ... Designer creates spaces for people to have experiences ... Chris Honoré: Reality television and the GOP primaries ... Mural of rescued horses to be unveiled in Talent ... Designer creates spaces for people to have experiences ... ANOTHER VIEW Jeffrey Gillespie: Thoughts on marriage equality Comment DailyTidings.com Writer Posted May. 1, 2015 at 12:01 AM Posted May. 1, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Let's get it out of the way early, folks. The equality question is deeply personal for me. I grew up under one of the foulest systems of government in world history — apartheid South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s. Throughout my formative years, older members of my own family (all now dead) wouldn't let a black person into the house to clean the floors or wash the windows. There was a color spectrum, you see. Whites ruled the roost. People of mixed race were considered "worthy" of indoor work. Blacks should remain outside, most ideally in zones reserved especially for them. The apartheid ethos stated that this was best for everyone. Its supporters felt that they were helping God's natural plan — by way of a little man-made segregation. Today, South Africa has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. Discrimination of any kind has been scrubbed aggressively from the language and the letter of the law. Interracial marriage, previously banned, has been legalized. So too has marriage between people of the same gender. And thank goodness for it, because if these laws were not guaranteed under the Constitution of the Republic, four out of the six people in my immediate family would be considered second-class citizens today. They still are considered as such in much of the United States. After hearing oral arguments on Tuesday, the Supreme Court may deign to take steps to eliminate such obvious discrimination from the public discourse, provided the anti-gay lobby doesn't get its way. I say the anti-gay lobby because that is precisely what it is. They are not about being "pro-marriage" or "conventional". They are about an aggressive assault on our founding documents in an attempt to write discriminatory language into permanent law. Simply put, none of the arguments against the legalization of same sex marriage add up. The religious right would have you believe that marriage equality will somehow affect the nuclear family, but there is little chance of that. Since 87 percent of Americans identify as traditional Christian, there will always be plenty of orthodoxy to go around. Many of those traditionalists identify gay marriage as a "sin", but that is still a religious distinction, not a constitutional one. The 14th Amendment (the very same amendment that was bitterly contested when it was adopted in 1868 to address inequality relating to former slaves) exists primarily to prevent the interests of a dominant class from intersecting with the personal freedoms of others not yet so privileged. However, the "family values" sector seems to feel that the freedom provided under the Constitution should only be applicable if it doesn't upset their personal perspectives. Interestingly, the 14th Amendment was also used by conservatives as a key legal instrument in helping to win the White House for George W. Bush in 2000's Bush vs. Gore. Arguments are now being heard for marriage equality. Some of the court's conservative members have already made the shameful argument that same-sex couples should not be given equal marriage rights simply because they have not enjoyed them in the past. By that measure, should electricity, antibiotics, air travel, and information technology also be cast aside as blights on the culture, under the bizarre logic that they did not previously exist? The simple fact is that heteronormative behavior and the premiership of a straight, male-dominated culture has stifled women, people of color and people of so-called "nontraditional" gender and sexual orientation for far too long. If we are a country that truly puts personal liberty before pervasive prejudice, we need not write a new chapter into our Constitution. We need simply look at the protections that are already there: that every citizen is afforded equal protection under the law. That means protections under existing marital law, as well, for any persons wishing to wed. One would hope that these truths will become self-evident at the Supreme Court over the next few months. Jeffrey Gillespie's writing has appeared in the Santa Fean and Art Collector magazines, the Portland Mercury and Willamette Week. He lives in Ashland. DailyTidings.com Writer Posted May. 1, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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