REPLY TO EVE'S REGISTER COLUMN: Barry Deutsch

...How many premises of Eve's argument are wrong?

1. Did the precedents Eve mentions really lead to gay marriage?

First of all, Eve implies that these precedents (hate crimes, the ERA, anti-discrimination laws) were essential--or at least important--to the Goodridge decision. In fact, they barely mattered at all; to claim they led to gay marriage is either deceptive or wildly mistaken. ...

2. Did the legislators have no idea that gay marriage might result?

...First of all, in all the cases Eve mentions, opponents argued that the proposed legislation would lead inevitably to same-sex marriage (and thus, they seemed to think, to the collapse of civilization). So the legislators were faced with contrary expert opinions, some arguing that this legislation could someday lead to gay marriage, some arguing the opposite. Given this history, it's ridiculous to claim that legislators weren’t aware of the possibility of gay marriage.

...Eve's story of tragically ignorant legislators, who were simply never told that same-sex marriage was a theoretically possible outcome of the ERA and other changes, is compelling--but it's also fiction.

3. The U.S. is ruled by a Constitution - not by a majority.

I wonder what Eve would say if a majority of voters--in a referendum, say--passed a law denying gays and lesbians the right to free speech? The courts would (I assume) overturn such a law on Constitutional grounds. Would Eve object, on the (correct) grounds that the framers of the First Amendment didn't foresee it being used to give equal rights to gays, and therefore this is a case of the courts changing what the legislature voted for?

more

[Eve says: Again, I'll reply briefly but not tonight...given that tonight is already tomorrow.]
posted by Eve at 12:00 AM VOTE

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