Friday February 17, 2006 SGN.org |
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Volume 34 Issue 07 |
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Saturday, Nov 21, 2009
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Battle for marriage equality is about families and individual rights, says the Northwest Women's Law Center's Lisa Stone |
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| Battle for marriage equality is about families and individual rights, says the Northwest Women's Law Center's Lisa Stone | |
| '...[O]ur state constitution guarantees equality, fundamental rights and
equal treatment, and the court's unique function is to ensure those rights are meaningful for all Washingtonians.'
[Editor's Note: The Executive Director of the Northwest Women's Law Center, Lisa Stone, delivered the following speech on February 15 at a marriage equality forum in Bellevue, WA.] I could talk to you about the constitutional claims the couples in our cases brought, and I'd be happy to discuss those if you have questions, but it seems to me the real questions we face as a community and a society are: o What values do we want to uphold? o Who is responsible for advocating for and protecting those values? o What can we learn from our own system of government and other systems about the best ways to protect those values? As to the first, we can all agree that it's critical to protect children and families. What's more, the cornerstone of our country's founding and history is the value and rights of individuals. Those two core principles - families and individual rights - are what the marriage equality lawsuit and debate are all about. When we say "we value one kind of family over another, and will provide protections to one and not the other" we're reneging on our commitment to the children and families of our community. How can we choose between families? Equally important, we are privileged to live in a country with the most enlightened, balanced, just system of government in the world. Our nation's government was designed specifically to protect individuals from the tyranny of the majority and the tyranny of the government. When George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and our other founders established this country and its government, they did so to protect our individual freedoms from the tyranny of King George. And they designed our system to ensure that the Courts stand between each of us and that tyranny, with the state and federal constitutions buttressing that protection. Our country's Courts are the only place where each of us can appear, on equal footing with everyone else, to claim our rights. When Linda Brown wanted to attend a desegregated school in Topeka, Kansas, in 1954, it was the legislature that wanted to stop her, and the Courts who said: "she has a right to be treated equally". When the executive branch of government wants to take your property for public use, it is the courts who ensure you receive compensation for your loss. When Richard Nixon wanted to conceal from the American people tapes and materials about his secret activities, claiming executive privilege, it was the courts that had to protect the public's interest and the integrity of our government. When married women wanted to exercise their right to space their children and use contraception, the legislatures wanted to stop them, and it was the courts who that upheld their constitutional right to decide whether and when to have a child. In all these cases, and countless more, the legislature or the executive branch had overstepped its authority, or ignored the rights of individuals or favored the majority over the minority. And that's why we have our system of checks and balances - so the people can confidence that the rights guaranteed them by their state and federal constitutions cannot be ignored or trampled. That is the courts' unique role - to be a check on the other branches, and to make our constitutions meaningful. That's also why the question whether marriage should be reserved to a few or available to all consenting adults properly belongs before the Court; because our state constitution guarantees equality, fundamental rights and equal treatment, and the court's unique function is to ensure those rights are meaningful for all Washingtonians. We should not settle for anything less. |
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