Happy Loving Day!

40 years ago today, the Supreme Court ruled that Virginia's anti-miscegenation statutes were unconstitutional.

Let me repeat that. 40 years ago, it was against the law in many states for a white person to marry a black one.

Let us hope that one day soon, laws against gay marriage go the same way. I have no doubt that our children and grandchildren will look at today's laws against gay marriage with the same horror and disbelief that most of us now feel about the anti-miscegenation laws.

[T]here is a striking similarity between the arguments used to justify anti-miscegenation laws and the arguments put forward today against gay marriage. Tradition, a respect for majority opinion, religion, science, sociology -- all were invoked with great somberness and much citation of experts and their research. The prejudice that propped up all the arguments -- and, for us, invalidates them -- was invisible or inevitable to their proponents.

Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents, their sentencing judge decreed. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix. --Fred Hiatt

You opponents of gay marriage, I beg of you to consider your position in light of the positions of people opposed to interracial marriage just a single generation ago. How was it possible that so many American citizens believed then what seems to be a gravely immoral position today? What questions have you asked yourself to ensure you aren't making a similar mistake today?

Those Who Think Gay Sex is Wrong More Likely to Oppose Intermarriage

When I wrote about the correlation between the former slave states and states with constitutional amendments against gay marriage, people were skeptical. Reading the Inductivist today, I realized that the trusty GSS might shed some light on the correlation between attitudes towards race and homosexuality.

I couldn't find a question specifically about gay marriage, but I did find one about gay sex, specifically

What about sexual relations between two adults of the same
sex--do you think it is always wrong, almost always wrong, wrong
only sometimes, or not wrong at all?

Obviously, nobody around now was around during slavery, but there is a question about miscegenation:

Do you think there should be laws against marriages
between (Negroes/Blacks/African- Americans) and whites?

(Note that the survey has run from 1972-2004, so opinions have no doubt varied over time. However, in 1982, there was a question about whether the subject had opposed intermarriage in 1972 and the correlation with opposing gay sex is even stronger.)

On the one hand, the results aren't at all surprising. Of course people against miscegenation are more likely to be against gay sex and vice-versa. On the other hand, opponents of gay sex (and gay marriage) want us to believe the two have nothing to do with each other.