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I always thought Virginia
was for lovers, not against them. That’s why I am so thankful for the case Loving v. Virginia.
A married couple — Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, a black woman - won a 1967 ruling from the United States Supreme Court that Virginia’s miscegenation laws were unconstitutional. That case recognized marriage as one of the inviolable personal rights in Americans’ pursuit of happiness, a right that would have been denied me and my wife if we had sought to marry before Loving became law.
“Civil rights” are positive legal prerogatives - the right to equal treatment before the law. These are rights shared by all - there is no one in the United States who does not, or should not1, share in them.
Gay and lesbian rights are not “special rights” in any way. It isn’t “special” to be free from discrimination. It is an ordinary, universal entitlement of citizenship. The right not to be discriminated against is a commonplace claim we all expect to enjoy under our laws and our founding document, the Constitution.
That many struggled and even died to gain these rights makes them even more precious. But it does not make them special, and it does not reserve them only for some, or restrict them from others.
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