Excellent documentary on the case of Virginia couple Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple arrested, jailed and banished from Virginia for marrying in the 1950's.
As I listen to it, I can't help but replace interracial with gay and realize I am listening to the same exact excuses for not allowing lesbians and gays to marry.
Their love was not illegal. Their marriage was, a violation of Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act banning interracial marriage.
Richard and Mildred Loving were both sent to jail, charged criminally, convicted of felonies and banished from Virginia, the harsh beginning of a nine-year journey in which the couple would fight all the way to the Supreme Court, for the right to go home as husband and wife. 18 other states also had similar laws.
June 12,1967, the Supreme Court, in a 9-0 decision, struck down the laws banning interracial marriage:
"Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not to marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the state"
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/1...#storylink=cpy
__________________
~Anya~
Democracy Dies in Darkness
~Washington Post
"...I'm deeply concerned by recently adopted policies which punish children for their parents’ actions ... The thought that any State would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable."
UN Human Rights commissioner