Love Wins

​We had a little dance party on Friday June 26th when we learned of the U.S. Supreme Court Ruling that made banning same sex marriage unconstitutional. It definitely warranted a special Freddy Friday. Freddy wanted to say "Yaaaaayyy" and "Finally", because as far as he is concerned, the only important thing in life is love....and everyone deserves to marry the person they love....and have ribs and cake!!!!‪

In all seriousness though, it makes my heart hurt when I think of a loving couple being judged for something beyond their control and refused their right to make a commitment that is recognized in the eyes of their world....a commitment that allows them the same legal and financial rights every other committed couple in the world is entitled to. Being African and having a husband who is about as Caucasian as you can get definitely makes me sensitive to the politics of intimacy.

It wasn't that long ago that goverment regulation of interracial intimacies existed. "Anti-miscegenations" legislation existed with the sole goal of prohibiting marriages like mine. In Canada, the "Indian Act" was designed to regulate marital relations and would disenfranchise mixed race children. In the US Anti-Miscegenations laws were felony offences that when enforced destroyed and tore lives apart.

As Debra Thompson notes in her 2008 work "Nation and Miscegenation: Comparing Anti-Miscegenation Regulations in North America".....

"Anti-miscegenation regimes in the United States and the Indian Act in Canada were both concerned with drawing boundaries around various racial identities, determining who was – and who was not – acceptable as a sexual or marital partner in accordance with prominent ideas of race and gender at the time"

To me this statement rings so very true....especially the part that reads that these laws were "In accordance with prominent ideas of race and gender at the time". Society's IDEAS have change in the last 40 - 50 years. And in hindsight most of us are horrified by the old ways.

I wonder...how different is the Supreme Court ruling yesterday....how different is it from the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1967 that found anti-miscegenation laws to be unconstitutional....they don't seem that different to me.....

...and so we will celebrate...Freddy, Carmela, Zoo, Gordon and I will celebrate that yet another part of this world of ours recognizes that everyone is allowed to love and be loved.