Why Latinos have to be concerned with marriage equality

The debate over marriage equality, especially in light of the goings-on in California over Proposition 8, has people a little uncomfortable.  In my opinion, however, this is the last frontier of civil rights in the United States.  I say this because the restriction of legal marriage because of sexual orientation means that one group’s rights to “…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” will be infringed.  The writers and ratifiers of the Declaration of Independence meant for all citizens of the United States of America to have equal protections and rights under the law.  It was, and still should be, considered the act of a patriot to hold these rights as “inalienable,” in other words, they were meant for all citizens.

We Latinos understand that terminology.  It wasn’t all that long ago that the only job that a Mexican could get was building railroad or picking vegetables.  I know people that grew up in the San Luis valley here in Colorado that were beaten as schoolchildren because they made the horrible mistake of speaking Spanish in the school yard.  We can also think back to the old times, when New Spain ceded Texas to the United States, and how immediately laws were passed barring Catholics from owning land.  People who were given land grants from the Spanish crown, sometimes for acts of heroism, were suddenly homeless because of their native language and because of their faith.

We Latinos understand the way civil rights are infringed upon…all too well.

Now, I want to make a huge distinction between civil matters and religious matters.  There’s the whole separation of church thing, remember?  I am a practicing Roman Catholic, and the last thing I want is the government mixing it up in my religion, telling us what to do, even though I would be totally ok with gay marriages being sanctioned in the Church.  But the Church is an organism separate from “the world.”  If the Church decides she doesn’t want to bless gay marriages, then that’s a battle we need to fight internally, without the interference of government.  This is a totally different thing from the civil right to marry whomever one chooses.

In the final analysis, no matter how weirded out we get by the prospect of a gay marriage, that marriage has no effect on heterosexual marriages.  In fact, nearly 52 percent of them will end in divorce all by themselves, without any undue influence from a gay underground.  We heterosexuals napalm our own relationships because we cling to sexist ideals, to unrealistic expectations of one’s partner, of moral incompatibilities.  There are no gays at the gate waiting to ambush you as you open the door for the morning paper.

Is it fair to deny equal access to marriage to a couple that happens to be of the same gender?  No, just as much as it’s not fair to have laws that make interracial marriages illegal, or marriages between a citizen and an undocumented resident, or between a Catholic and a Jew, for example.  As we all know, there was a time in which it was illegal for blacks and whites to marry.  Now we look back at that past with a jaundiced eye and wonder what the hell was wrong with us.

Let’s get over this weirdness we have about gay marriage and just let people try to be happy with someone they love, for crying out loud.  Ok?

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