Updated: 12/31/2005; 8:48:52 AM.
Jesse Liberty's Queer Politics Weblog
Queer political issues, as well as other musings and rants by the founder of CLAMBS Equality

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Saturday, December 31, 2005

Karl Rove has said that President Bush "absolutely will push for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage... five thousand years of human history should not be overthrown by the acts of a few liberal judges...

A few facts from history...

Earliest recorded marriages go back to circa 17 BCE . The father deliverd the bride to her husband (she had no say  in the matter). In 527 the Justinian lawyers drew up laws which regulated marriage but it was a civil contract between the father and the husband for the property that was the wife

Until the 9th century (1100 years ago) marriages had no church involvement. For the next 700 years the Church recognized marriage but it was not a sacrament.   In 1563 the Council of Trent transformed the ceremony into a sacrement of the church (though divorce was and remains prohibited by the Papacy).

For most of human history, the bride was owned by the husband. In Western culture, marriage could involve 9 year old girls, divorce was impossible, by law a husband could not be held to have raped his wife.

That is "western culture" - In New Guinea it has been belived for over 3,000 years that for an adolescent male to become a man, he must fellate an adult male.

5,000 years of "marriage" does not exist; and historically marriage has included polygamy, poylandry, child abuse, rape, ownership, enslavement, as well as (more recently)  civil and religous ceremonies. In this country, until 1967 it was illegal in many state for couples of different "races" to intermarry and that prohibition enjoyed support by 90% of Americans until it was overturned by the US Supreme Court.


Rove's statement illustrates two great lies this administration has been perpetuating. One is that there are 5000 years of continuity in the definition of marriage. The other, more pernicious, is that when judges protect the rights of marginalized minorities through state constiutions, they overstep their bounds and diminish democracy.

Ours is a Constitutional democracy, and the entire point of a Constitution is to set some laws beyond the reach of popular opinion.

 

(reprinted with revisions from an earlier posting no longer available)


8:48:51 AM    comment []

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