Chris wants to marry Jessica, who is a 26-year-old white Christian woman.
It would be unconstitutional for the government to prevent Chris from marrying Jessica on account of Chris’s race. The government couldn’t require that Chris be white, since race is a protected class.
It would be unconstitutional for the government to prevent Chris from marrying Jessica on account of Chris’s religion. The government couldn’t prohibit the marriage because Chris is Muslim, since religion is a protected class.
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It would be unconstitutional for the government to prevent Chris from marrying Jessica on account of Chris’s age. As long as Chris is an adult, the law can’t depend on whether Chris is 28 or 88, since age is a protected class.
Likewise, it is unconstitutional for the government to prevent Chris from marrying Jessica on account of Chris’s gender. For the government to prohibit the marriage if Chris is short for Christina (but allow it if Chris is short for Christopher) violates the 14th Amendment, as gender is a protected class.
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The argument above is what helped me realize why marriage equality is the only legitimate position in our society. In 2004, I regrettably voted in favor of Michigan’s Proposal 2, which put into our state constitution a ban on same-sex marriage and civil unions. At the time, I was in favor of civil unions, but did not support marriage equality. Being a 19-year-old first-time voter, I was very ignorant of how proposals worked, and so I ended up casting a vote that would prevent what I wanted (civil unions with equal rights) out of fear that what I didn’t support (calling it marriage) would automatically become law if the proposal failed.
It was a few years later that I realized my opposition to marriage equality was based on reasons that have no constitutional legitimacy. And that doesn’t even consider the moral arguments, which also lead to supporting two people’s right to marry each other, regardless of things like race or gender. Now that I am running for office, I will do whatever I can to help move the state towards recognizing marriage equality.
The courts need to overturn Proposal 2 from 2004, and add Michigan to the list of states that have marriage equality.
If anyone has a constitutional counter-argument as to why same-sex marriage should continue to be banned, I would love to hear it.
