Only 44 years ago, in the state of Florida, it was illegal for a black person and a white person to co-habitate as well as get married. Such laws were called Anti-miscegenation laws and in Florida they outlawed interracial cohabitation and marriage. Fortunately the cohabitation law was overturned in 1964 via McLaughlin v. Florida by the U.S. Supreme Court as unconstitutional. In 1967 the U.S. Supreme court struck down Anti-miscegenation laws that prohibited interracial marriage via the Loving v. Virginia case.
Virginia trial court Judge Leon Bazile stated, "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."
After the ruling of the Supreme Court, the remaining laws were no longer in effect. Nonetheless, it took South Carolina until 1998 and Alabama until 2000 to officially amend their states' constitutions to remove language prohibiting miscegenation. In the respective referendums, 62% of voters in South Carolina and 59% of voters in Alabama voted to remove these laws.
Today when we speak of hate a lot of different groups come to mind. A few examples of these types of groups are the KKK, the Westboro Baptist Church, the New Black Panther Party and of course the Nazis (new and old). In Germany, an anti-miscegenation law was enacted by the National Socialist government (Nazis) in September 1935 as part of the Nuremberg Laws (Protection of German Blood and German Honor Act). The laws enacted and in some cases barely amended were no different than the laws passed during the Nazi regime in Germany.
Taking this small history lesson in hand and using it as a comparison to the current day hate laws there is no shadow of a doubt that the recent laws passed reflect the existence of prejudice, bigotry and hate that still pulses through the veins of America. 62% of Floridians approved the law to exclude homosexuals from having any form of a legal union. To those people I express my heartache, shock, dismay and my disgust.
I will stand up and fight for my RIGHT to marry WHOMEVER I CHOOSE. This is America... NOT Nazi Germany and even though it majority spoke it is NEVER right to limit the rights of a specific group regardless of color, creed, gender, orientation, disability or ethnicity.
If you truly want to see the ugly head of hate rear its head think about the vote on some of these hateful ballots:
1) Illegal for Atheists to marry since "Marriage" is a pact between a woman, man and God.
2) Outlaw Christians and Jews from marrying Muslims.
3) Outlaw Blacks, Hispanics, Latinos from adopting white children.
...
You can see that the above while hyperbole is not too far removed from the exclusionary principals of Amendment 2.
I ask that everyone look within themselves and see Amendment 2 for what it is. I ask that you look into your heart and put yourself into the place of those the law is against and ask yourself how you would feel if this law was geared toward you. If you are incapable of stepping outside of your own self for a moment to imagine the pain suffered I am afraid that this plea will fall to the ground much like a lead weight.
“Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.” - John F. Kennedy
