Interracial couples should be illegal.

God did not intend for different races to procreate, and crossing racial boundaries creates unnecessary problems in a marriage.

It was this thinking that brought Mildred and Richard Loving before the Supreme Court more than 40 years ago. The black woman and white man were arrested because their marriage violated a Virginia law banning interracial marriage.

Their fight for love eventually landed in history books when the Supreme Court ruled that banning their marriage violated their basic rights given by the 14th Amendment.

This Thursday, an estimated 18 thousand people will have their marriages annulled unwillingly, and nothing about the Loving decision can protect them.

Are they any less human?

No.

Do they love any differently?

No.

What kind of crime did these people commit to lose their constitutional freedoms?

They happen to be gay.

In a close vote during the November election, California voters passed Proposition 8, which reverses the California Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage. Religious and conservative groups poured millions of dollars into the campaign for Proposition 8, while civil rights activists cried foul.

The November results were appealed, and Thursday, California will once again visit the controversial issue of gay marriage. Will the Supreme Court reverse the people’s vote? If so, what will happen to the thousands of marriages that took place when gay marriage was still legal in the state?

I am disgusted that people are not more concerned with the outcome of this case. The fight for gay rights is the great civil rights battle of this generation, and any American who believes in freedom should not support the bigotry promoted by denying any person marriage rights.

It boggles me that groups can deny a person the right to express love to another person and cite religious motives for their hateful ways.

People who mask their prejudices beneath religious cloaks and conservative propaganda disgust me.

Maybe some religions teach inequality for some, but this nation demands justice for all.

If you do not believe in gay marriage, don’t force others to suffer because of intolerance.

Courts and legislators set a dangerous precedent by writing hate and discrimination into state and federal law. The founding fathers intended amendments to extend individual freedoms, not restrict them. I am glad laws about interracial marriage and school segregation did not rest in the hands of a racist America

As long as policies such as Proposition 8 exist, every American is a little less free. The values of the majority are victimizing the minority, and that’s not a government I can defend.

MarchaŠ Grair is a junior electronic media management major and columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].