“We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.”
I
abhor the institution of marriage. I absolutely do. To me, marriage
is an antiquated and over-rated institution which, by its very nature,
deprives a person from enjoying the freedoms he or she can only enjoy
as an individual. I plan on never getting married myself, and, on
several occasions, I have called into question the intellect of
people who have decided to get married. Yet, I was not a least bit
surprised when, on the 26th of June, 2013, I found myself defending the right of same-sex couples
to get married, along with the notion that all marriages should be
treated equally.
Before
explaining why, I believe a definition of marriage is first required.
“Marriage” is, essentially, an agreement between two consenting
people which binds them together with a set of rights and
responsibilities towards each other. In other words, it is just
another contract, and just like all other contracts, it is a
relationship based upon obligations; everything else is secondary.
One
thing becomes clear from this definition: Consent is the chief
requirement for marriage. Not coerced consent; not uninformed
consent; but consent that is provided willfully after being presented
with all the facts. Ergo, those who are afraid that same-sex marriage
will somehow lead to human-baboon marriages are dead-wrong as baboons
are yet to demonstrate that they have the skills provide an informed
consent.
Besides,
if drunk hetero-sexual people can legally get married in Las Vegas,
Nevada, on a regular basis without even knowing the basic facts about
their spouse, why can two people who just happened to be of the same
gender but love each other and have known each other for years not do
the same? Is it in any way right?
Having
said that, let me explain why I think all marriages – same-sex or
otherwise – should be treated equally; and my explanation has
nothing to do with beliefs, politics, or sexual orientation. Instead,
my reasoning stems from the Constitution of the United States itself.
To be more specific, it stems from the Ninth Amendment backed up by
the Fourteenth Amendment, unlike the majority decision in United
States v. Windsor (2013)
which was based on the Fifth Amendment.
The
Ninth Amendment basically states that just because some rights were
not exclusively mentioned in the first eight amendments does not
necessarily mean that people do not have those rights.
“The
enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
If
one gives it some thought, the Ninth Amendment is the best one of all
as it – let's be honest – saves a lot of time. For instance, it
would be ridiculous if there was an amendment stating that “the
government shall not infringe upon the rights of the people to churn
butter, nor shall it interfere with the people's right to go to bed
at an hour of their own choosing”. The Constitution skips over
several rights, including the right to marry and the right to have a
family, by compressing all of those rights into the Ninth Amendment.
But
my favorite amendment to the U.S Constitution has to be the
Fourteenth Amendment – section one to be more precise. The
Fourteenth Amendment essentially turns the values enshrined in the
Declaration of Independence into law by making it crystal clear that
everyone has to be treated equally and no one can be deprived of a
right that has been provided to others.
“No
State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall
any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without
due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction
the equal protection of the laws.”
If
Citizen A has the right to vote, so must Citizen B. If Citizen C can
sit in the front seat of a bus, so can Citizen D. If Citizens E and F
can get married, so can Citizens G and H. Regardless of gender,
ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation, every single citizen of
the United States of America has the same unalienable rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution.
Those
who truly stand for American values, the chief amongst which is the
right of all to be treated as equals, those who truly respect the
Constitution of the United States, which guarantees equal rights for
all, will not be dismayed by the decision reached by the
Supreme Court on the 26th of June, 2013; they will be delighted by it.
There
are those who say that same-sex marriages will disrupt the natural
order of things, just as there were those who thought the same of
inter-racial marriages. But just as the latter have faded into the
horizon of history, so shall the former; for in this universe filled
with chaos there is but only one fact that is natural: All were
created equal and all were endowed with certain unalienable rights.
Two
hundred and thirty-seven years ago, an experiment began to see how
many people can be sheltered under the umbrella of democracy and
equality. Cynics at that time asked how can a group of slaveholders
declare that “all men were created equal.” A legitimate question,
but every time it has been asked, it has always been answered.
William Whipple answered back by freeing his slave; Abraham Lincoln
answered by freeing all slaves; Susan B. Anthony answered by
advocating for women's suffrage; Dr. Martin Luther King answered by
championing the civil rights movement; and, on the 26th of June, 2013, Supreme Court of the United States answered by
providing all marriages with equal protection.
The
United States of America is an ongoing experiment, and that question
will continue to be asked; but the good news is that there will
always be someone to answer it. Perhaps the plaintiff in the case,
Edith Windsor, said it best: “The truth is, I never expected
anything less from my country.”
Happy
Fourth of July, and may God Bless America.
