Sam Allis, Boston Globe columnist writes on the 26th of November that he opposes the legislative maneuvers at the Massachusetts’ Constitutional Convention which prevent a ballot initiative creating a constitutional amendment baring same sex marriage from going forward. He asserts his reason for this objection is that he is a “process liberal.” I have some sympathy with his position. We want it fair and square. That’s what our democracy is about.
Mr Allis adds how he is uncomfortable to find himself on the same side as Governor Mitt Romney, whose every political move these days seems to be informed by a thirst that apparently can only be quenched in the White House. The Governor is appealing to the courts to force this vote demonstrating how mainstream he is in his opposition to same sex marriage, and to what lengths he will go to bar it. Of this maneuver Mr Allis says “nothing around this issue is clean.” He then throws in as an example his observation that advocates of another “lefty” issue, universal health care, are calling for a similar forced vote for a sidelined draft amendment.
Mr Allis’ acknowledges the system is broken, the bar for throwing a constitutional amendment before the people in Massachusetts is ridiculously low. His point, I gather, is the difficulties with the process admitted, still that flawed process trumps justice for gay and lesbian citizens. The headline, which I don’t think he had a hand in constructing, shouts “End cannot justify means on gay marriage.”
I have a disagreement with Mr Allis, it seems. First, the maneuvers on the part of the legislators who avoided taking a vote are part of the democratic process. While I would naturally squawk if such a maneuver were used against issues I care about, it is the way people can stall a majoritarian tyranny, and I’m glad there are such processes available. Legislators who know such arcana of their trade are justifiably lauded by their fellows.
The current hatred for homosexual persons in our culture is so pervasive that people don’t even notice it is hatred. Already too many states have legislated against gay and lesbian’s having marriage rights. What we have in the Commonwealth is an opportunity to show that this ordinary human right is not tarnished nor destroyed when it is shared by same gender folk as well as heterosexual folk.
What we desperately need is some time. As people see that gay and lesbian people are just like everyone else, that their lives are just as banal and uninteresting as everyone else’s, then an era of legal equality will be at hand. (And I have a lot of hope in the generation coming up. They seem to get this point whatever political style they affect. Justice for gay and lesbian people in our culture is coming…) What has happened so far is perfectly democratic fighting to hold on for that time when people can step away from prejudice and see the ordinary for what it is, our common heritage.
My two cents.
PS: It would also be good if we had a Constitutional amendment calling for Universal Health Care in the Commonwealth. These are not “lefty” issues, these are issues of human rights. Let the politics roil…
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