Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJune 12th, 2012
TODAY’S AGENDA (Ours):
Senate Hearing on ENDA: Washington, D.C. Last week, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, announced that he will hold another set of hearings today on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Among the five witnesses for today’s hearing will be Kylar Broadus, who will become the first openly transgender person to testify about the lack of employment non-discrimination protections for LGBT people. He is the founder of Trans People of Color Coalition of Columbia, MD. The other four witnesses include M.V. Lee Badgett, Research Director of the Williams Institute; Samuel Bagenstos, law professor at the University of Michigan Law SChool; Ken Charles, Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion at General Mills, Inc.; and Craig Parshal, Senior Vice President and General Council of the National Religious Broadcasters Association. The hearing will at place today at 10:00 a.m. in Room 106 of the Dirksen Senate office Building.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Loving v. Virginia: 1967. Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving were an unusual couple. They had long crossed the racial barrier as friends in rural Central Point, Virginia: she was Black and Native American, he was white. But friendship turned to dating, and when Mildred became pregnant at the age of 18 in 1958, they decided to go to Washington, D.C. to elope. When they returned home, a group of police officers invaded their house late at night hoping to catch them in the act of having sex (which would have been a crime because of their racial differences). Mildred pointed to the marriage license that they had hung on the wall, hoping that it would protect them. Little did she know, but that license was proof that they had committed another crime. Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924 prohibited any “colored” person with so much as one drop of African American or Indian blood from marrying a white person. Miscegenation was a felony, punishable by a prison sentence of between one and five years. The couple pleaded guilty on January 6, 1959, and they were sentenced to one year, with the sentence suspended for 25 years on the condition that they left Virginia.
The Lovings moved to D.C., and in 1963 the ACLU began a series of motions and lawsuits alleging that Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Those lawsuits eventually made their way all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. On June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court struck down Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law, along with similar laws in fifteen other states. In the unanimous ruling, the Court held that “Marriage is one of the ‘basic civil rights of man,’ fundamental to our very existence and survival.” Despite this ruling, anti-miscegenation laws remained on the books for several years to come, despite their being unenforceable. In 2000, Alabama voters approved a ballot initiative to repeal its anti-miscegenation law, although even then more than half a million — 40% — voted to keep it.
Mildred and Richard were never political people. After the Supreme Court victory, the couple returned to Virginia and raised three children. Richard died in 1975 at the age of 41 when their car was struck by a drunk driver. Mildred lost her right eye in the accident. She passed away in 2008 of pneumonia at the age of 68. But a year before she died, she issued a statement on the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, in which she saw the fight for the freedom to marry as unfinished business:
My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone, they have a right to marry.
Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the ‘wrong kind of person’ for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.
I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight, seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.
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Lindoro Almaviva
June 12th, 2012
I hope some reader I. VA who knows where the Lovings are hurried will take a moment to put a small floral tribute. If I was in the area I would do it myself.
If we think we owe the livings now let’s wait until the SCOUTS quote this desicion on page after page when they tell the religious bigots they can’t control who a gay person marries
F Young
June 12th, 2012
This is the first time I read Mildred’s quote. Powerful stuff. Thanks for publishing it.
Mark F.
June 12th, 2012
I’m not a fan of anti-discrimination laws, but it’s interesting that the Democrats are having hearings on this now when they don’t have the votes to pass it. Why couldn’t they pass something in the 2009–2010 session when they had a big majority in both houses?
Timothy (TRiG)
June 12th, 2012
An extraordinary woman.
TRiG.
Andrew
June 13th, 2012
Another class act. And, she bagged the hottie! Good for her! Good for us! Go Mildred!
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