More than seven years ago, on July 3, 2003, HNN published “The Historians’ Case Against Gay Discrimination,” a fascinating brief prepared by prominent historians to support same-sex plaintiffs in the famous case Lawrence v. Texas (June 26, 2003), in which the United States Supreme Court struck down prohibitions against all private, adult consensual sex.
Many of the same arguments in that brief, presented by some of the same historians, were a powerful force in Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision on August 4 of this year that California’s Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.
In the 2003 brief, the historians – George Chauncey, Nancy F. Cott, John D’Emilio, Estelle B. Freedman, Thomas C. Holt, John Howard, Lynn Hunt, Mark D. Jordan, Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, and Linda P. Kerber – asked the Court, as “friends” of the plaintiffs, …to consider the findings of recent historical scholarship on the history of sexual regulation, sodomy prohibitions, and anti-gay discrimination as it considers this case. In our judgment as historians, the lessons of this history are clear. The history of antigay discrimination is short, not millennial… It was only in the twentieth century that the government began to classify and discriminate against certain of its citizens on the basis of their homosexual status… [But] In recent years, a decisive majority of Americans have recognized such measures for what they are – discrimination that offends the principles of our Nation – yet a number of them remain in place… They hold no legitimate place in our Nation’s traditions.
Click here for gay marriage resources.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
