If this were the year 1967, my wife and I would be greatly relieved right about now. It was 39 years ago this month that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the final laws against miscegenation, a dire-sounding word that actually means interracial marriage. Although the country had been home to mixed couples since the days when John Rolfe got jiggy with an Indian woman by the name of Pocahontas, in the legal community, race-mixing was still considered an offense in 16 states until 1967.
It's an interesting coincidence that as we pass 39 years of legally sanctioned interracial marriage, the Pennsylvania state legislature has been busy approving an amendment that would ban gay marriage.
From Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, there are gay and lesbian couples who've adopted children, cohabited like legally married couples and even enjoyed health benefits from progressive employers. They continue living their lives as married couples even while our lawmakers play to bigoted voters by passing meaningless anti-gay marriage laws.
But if passing laws against gay marriage seems goofy, consider the laws form 200 years ago. During the Revolutionary War period, there were bizarre laws demanding that a white woman in the state of Virginia who gave birth to a mulatto child had to spend five years as an indentured servant. In Maryland, the white wife of a black man had to serve that man's slave master for the rest of her life. Meanwhile, researchers at the University of South Florida recently found that there were some 120,000 interracial Americans born during the Revolutionary War period, which means people were still living they way they wanted with whom they wanted, despite what the knuckleheads in government thought.
Though several lawmakers throughout the union staged public tantrums about having to legalize interracial marriages back in 1967, their fears of a ruined, lawless society never materialized. By the 1990 U.S. Census, one in 33 Americans identified themselves as being of mixed race heritage. By 1995, that number had risen to one in 26.
Better yet, interracial marriage has produced people as stunningly beautiful as Paula Abdul and Shakira, which even the most ardent segregationist has to agree is a positive development.
In time, I'm sure state governments will have to accept that millions of gay couples are already marrying in everything but the courts. They'll make gay marriage legal and the issue will soon be forgotten.
Until the lawmakers need a new scapegoat, that is.
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