Change can't be silenced; same-sex marriage will be legal

Same-sex marriages will be legal in the U.S.

It will happen long before most voters are ready for it because our Constitution tugs us toward equality, no matter how much some may resist.

Voters in California were wrong to force a ban on same-sex marriage into their state constitution, and their vote will be flushed away by the tide of progress just as opposition to other civil rights has been. In fact, the California vote has lit a fire under people who want marriage equality.

I could feel the energy at Saturday's rally and march in Seattle that grew from the vote on California's Proposition 8.

Proposition 8 was a reaction to a California Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriages. In time, the court's correct decision will prevail.

I knew that when I saw Erin Kinch at Volunteer Park carrying a sign with a black and a white face in silhouette. One side read: "1966 Back then my parents could not marry either." And on the other side: "Thousands of gays marry — and my marriage is still intact." At the bottom of each side: "Marriage equality for all."

Erin, 26, is biracial and her husband, Jarren, is white. Jarren said they came not because of a gay friend or relative, but because equality is worth fighting for.

"We're proud to be here," Erin said. "This could be an important point in history, and we'd be part of it."

Preventing same-sex couples from marrying is often compared to laws against interracial marriage. Of course interracial marriage was not central to the struggles for rights that black Americans and other minority groups waged. Those campaigns were about equal education, access to jobs and housing and other rights.

Black folks could marry, as long as they married each other.

But marriage is a key issue on the road to equality for gays and lesbians. Couples who can't marry at all are left out of all of the rights and benefits marriage brings. And the right to marry is also monumentally important as a marker of social acceptance.

Even given the differences between interracial marriage and same-sex marriage, the route to interracial marriage says something about how gay marriage will be attained.

On civil-rights issues the courts have tended to be more progressive than voters.

The California Supreme Court ruled in 1948 that the state law against interracial marriage violated the U.S. Constitution. A decade later, the first Gallup Poll on interracial marriage found 94 percent of white Americans still against interracial marriage.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down miscegenation laws in 1967, but a 1968 Gallup Poll showed 72 percent of Americans still opposed.

Marriage Equality USA (marriageequality.org) has tracked opinion on both interracial and same-sex marriage. Polls show same-sex marriage gaining public support at a much faster rate than interracial marriage did.

I'm sure it doesn't feel like that to people who want their right to be married recognized, and their impatience is good.

Change happens because people make noise and keep issues in front of decision makers.

Jerry Large's column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 206-464-3346 or jlarge@seattletimes.com.