Freedom to Marry, Freedom to Think

From McClatchy Newspapers-

WASHINGTON - Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the poster child for gay marriage?

A coalition of civil rights groups that back gay marriage is using photos of prominent couples like the former Republican governor and his Mexican-born wife, Columba, in an advertising campaign marking the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, a U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave interracial couples the right to marry.

The groups say they hope to use the couples and the court case to bolster their contention that marriage is a civil right that should know no bounds - even for those of the same sex.


"We're honoring and celebrating something that just over 40 years ago some Americans said was immoral and wrong and could not happen," said Jimmy Creech, the executive director of Faith in America, a gay rights advocacy group that is bankrolling the ad campaign. "We're celebrating the wisdom that prejudice and bigotry was removed from the law books and Americans were given the right to marry the person they loved, regardless of race."

The "Freedom to Marry" advertising campaign - to be launched Monday - consists of six ads that will run in two Capitol Hill publications, Roll Call and Politico. They feature photos of interracial couples like golfer Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin, and former U.S. Defense Secretary Bill Cohen and his wife, Janet Langhart, who have authored a book about their marriage, "Love in Black and White." Couples married to someone of a different ethnicity, like the Bushes, are also featured.

The ads note that 16 states still banned interracial marriages until the Supreme Court struck down a Virginia law in 1967, finding "the freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men."

The supreme court decision the article is referring to is Loving vs. Virginia. Previously I blogged about that decision. My marriage is a interracial one, my wife Leonita is Asian/Filipino and I'm white. We just celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary on May 30th. That's my wife on the pony. That picture was taken in Poland seven years ago.



My and Leonita's families have always been supportive of us. There was never any friction, my late father positively adored Leonita. My mother-in-law lives with us.

Faith in America has a right to do whatever campaign they want. TFM has defended unpopular people before, Cindy Sheehan for one. Only if the stand is outrageous is it worthy of a Knucklehead. I've also blogged before how I feel that gay couples should get some kind of legal protection for their relationships.

Still I'm not crazy about this group, using my marriage and others like myself, to make their case. I don't feel its the same thing. Are I and the thousands of US servicemen who married Asian women they met abroad all poster childs for Faith in America's cause. Many may agree with FIA's cause, but you know something. I for one don't like being used to prove something. My politics and beliefs are mine, FIA's are there theirs. They are welcome to them, as am I to mine. Don't tell me what I should think or do, based on your set of criteria. I promise not to do the same.

Seriously I think FIA is targetting the wrong people. Their advertisements are running in publications for Washington insiders. If they want to get real change, they have to do it at a grassroots level and change public opinion. That's my opinion for whatever its worth.

Hat tip- Rick at SOTP
Linked to- Blue Star, Maggie, Perri Nelson, Woman Honor Thyself,