Marriage and the Struggle for Gay, Lesbian, and Black Liberation

May 17 is a notable date on the calendar of progressive reform in the United States. On May 17, 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education and Bolling v. Sharpe, the Supreme Court of the United States broke with tradition in holding that the Federal Constitution prohibits states and the federal government from racially segregating students in public primary and secondary schools. Fifty years later, on May 17, 2004, a ruling by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts took effect that broke with another fiercely defended tradition. In Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the supreme judicial court held that the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts prohibits that state from barring matrimony to a couple solely because the couple is of the same sex.

Brown and Goodridge share more than a coincidental date. The former nourished the soil from which the latter emerged. This should not be surprising. Struggles for justice on behalf of racial minorities have often generated benefits that have enhanced the quality of life for America as a whole.

Federal judicial monitoring of police practices arose from efforts to deter racist police from beating confessions out of black suspects. The legal standards that provide substantial breathing room to publications even when they make mistakes in criticizing government officials emerged from efforts to safeguard newspapers against crippling libel actions brought by angry segregationists. Many of the key legal rules that protect demonstrators against arbitrary or discriminatory suppression were established by efforts to shield black activists who demanded "Freedom Now."