"Civil rights should not be put up for a vote"

[51stcenturyfox]

I don't normally talk about politics on my LJ, but this was a short tweet today on Twitter trending topics for #maine, and it says it all, really.

In case you haven't heard, Maine voted against marriage equality for gay and lesbian citizens yesterday by a 53% majority. This does not surprise me. The country as a whole is ideologically split.

The thing is, this shouldn't be something we vote on at the local level anyway.  Equality is a civil rights issue.  Whether you call it marriage or something else, some people have greater protections (and federal benefits) under the law than others, and it isn't right.  We live under the same Constitution. If local voters in some places had their way, there would still be legal discrimination for housing, in schools, etc. Check out the Commerce Clause and its role in passing civil rights legislation at the federal level. 

Many of the reader comments on the Bangor Daily News article about the result are just shockingly ignorant. Celebrating a backwards decision to deny equal rights to your fellow citizens? Uncool.

But some comments are great:

"...you should ask yourself why law-abiding, taxpaying gay Americans should be forced to subsidize all the legal benefits and responsibilities that straight couples enjoy, when we are unable to take advantage of those same incentives to marry? And since when do voters get to decide that the rights that apply to them DO NOT apply to minorities?"

YES. THIS.

Comments

[alba17.livejournal.com]

Obviously I agree. The whole thing is disgusting and upsetting. However, DOMA (the ridiculously entitled federal Defense of Marriage Act) bars the federal government from even recognizing same sex marriages. So at this point, it's entirely a state issue, unless DOMA's reversed or there's a US Sup. Ct. decision declaring a federal constitutional right to same -sex marriage, or declaring sexual orientation a suspect class, which would allow people to challenge in federal court state laws that discriminate against gay people (not to mention DOMA itself).

Fortunately (for this issue), only some states allow ballot propositions, which, yeah, allow majority rule.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

DOMA needs a high court challenge, IMO. It's just bizarre to enact legislation giving a protected status to a group of people based on their choice of life partner.

I'd like to see a protected class status awarded under the Civil Rights Act (in terms of discrimination on other issues for LGBTQ citizens) first, probably. That would likely help.