I woke up Friday morning to read some good news: Argentina just voted to permit civil marriage for same-sex couples. This historic vote makes Argentina the tenth nation in the world to recognize the right of LGBT people to demonstrate their love and commitment to one another through marriage.
Wait, tenth?
Yep. The good old U.S. of A, leader of the free world and champion of democracy and human rights is lagging that far behind. Here are the countries that led the way for basic fairness in marriage:
Netherlands (2001)
Belgium (2003)
Spain (2005)
Canada (2005)
South Africa (2006)
Norway (2009)
Sweden (2009)
Portugal (2010)
Iceland (2010)
Argentina (2010)
.This honor roll includes not just the usual suspects (the socially liberal Netherlands and Nordic countries) but also heavily Catholic countries (Spain, Portugal and Argentina). Add in South Africa, which legalized same-sex marriage a mere twelve years after the fall of Apartheid, and it just starts to get embarrassing. When did we stop leading?
Now instead of looking up to America as an example of freedom and equality, other nations look back at us through their rear-view mirror as they speed past us. How did this happen? I would argue that it is a result of our drift away from the principles in our most important founding documents: the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Under the 14th Amendment, all American citizens are guaranteed equal protection under the law. This essentially means that you cannot recognize the civil rights of one group of people and deprive another group of those same rights without due process of law. Under federal law, married couples receive over 1000 benefits and responsibilities that unmarried couples do not enjoy. Currently, same-sex couples are denied these benefits under the law simply because of who they love.
This is about caring, responsibility and commitment. Marriage would provide a way for committed same-sex couples to protect and care for the people they love. Denying committed couples basic legal protections hurts them; it's wrong to make it harder for committed couples to take care of and be responsible for each other. Hospital visitation rights, pension benefits and inheritance rights are just a few of the many legal protections same-sex couples do not have access to.
Opponents of marriage equality wish to deny the protections and societal acceptance that come with marriage because they sincerely believe they are protecting their concept of "traditional marriage." But what is a traditional marriage? Polygamy, dowries, arranged marriages, forced marriages of pre-adolescents, legal ownership of spouses: all once an integral part of "traditional marriage." Over time our understanding of what marriage should be has changed, and it's time for us to change once more.
We've fallen behind in this particular issue, but it's never too late to start leading again. We need to reaffirm our commitment to fairness and equality by making the United States of America number 11 on that list.
