American Government

The Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia (1967) resulted in the striking down of state laws that prohibited whites and African Americans from marrying. Mildred Loving, one of the parties in the case, issued a statement on the fortieth-anniversary of her case in which she urged that same-sex couples be allowed to marry. Q. Are the two issues—laws prohibiting interracial marriage and laws prohibiting same-sex marriage—similar? Why or why not? I believe laws prohibiting interracial marriage and laws prohibiting same-sex marriage are similar. Marriage is a unique bond between a man and a woman, who agree to live together and fulfill each others moral and physical demands. However, such a bondage between a woman and a woman or a man and a man would be against nature. This is a widely accepted notion. In the Loving v. Virginia case, the judge believed when God created different races and placed them on separate continents. Men should not interfere with His arrangements and should not pursue interracial relationships. However, the ACLU filed a motion on behalf of the Lovings that Racial Integrity Act 1924 and Statutes preventing marriages solely on the basis of classification violates The Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the 14th amendment. This case holds its significance as it redefined what constituted a marriage. Some proponents of gay rights have cited this case in support of a right to marriage. Although opponents argue that this is not viable as the 'Loving' marriage was still between a man and a woman. In the United States, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Americans considered the freedom to choose a marriage partner a fundamental right. The idea that government could interfere with that choice is unthinkable.
The case is also significant because it is about how the United States defined marriage. Before 1967, a legal marriage could not be contracted in states with anti-miscegenation laws if the partners were of different races.