In Loving Memory
Mildred Loving, a black woman whose challenge to Virginia's ban on interracial marriage led to a 1967 landmark Supreme Court decision doing away with such laws nationwide, died Friday at her home near Richmond, VA. She was 68.
Loving and her white husband, Richard, were married in Washington, DC, in 1958, returned to Virginia, and a few weeks later woke up in their bed to find themselves surrounded by sheriff’s deputies. They were arrested and forced to choose between leaving Virginia and jail. They returned after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld their right to marry. The ruling struck down laws banning racially mixed marriages in at least 17 states.
The United States has made great strides in addressing racism, but the same cannot be said about another form of bigotry. For lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender Americans discrimination continues to live-on in laws like "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." There are still federal laws which say we cannot serve in the military, and laws in most states exclude us from the rights and obligations of marriage. These laws are as obviously unjust as the law that threatened the Lovings with jail some 40 years ago.
When will Congress come to see that? They need to catch up with the American people and make it possible for lesbians, gays and bisexuals in the armed forces to say “I am who I am” knowing they can continue to serve with pride and without fear. As in the Lovings' case, it’s a simple matter of justice.
(Photo of Mildred Loving and her husband Richard P Loving in January 26, 1965, credit AP)
05-06-08
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