Last weekend at the GOP Summit in New Hampshire, Gov. Scott Walker informed reporters that he attended the wedding reception of a gay relative. But he still held steadfast that marriage should still be between a man and a woman. This is not where Walker is right. But later in the conversation, a reporter asked Walker would attend another gay wedding. Walker said he would not, citing the fact that it is a “personal issue” and that he only went to one for a family member. On this issue, Walker is correct: Marriage is personal.
Just as it is for Walker, marriage for the people of America should be a personal issue determined between two people who love each other, and no one else. Walker should support any couple the same way he did his family member. Does he not think that other people with gay family members would enjoy supporting them like he did? It is selfish of him to believe he should be the only one who can support his family members. If Walker believes that marriage is “personal,” then he should not believe he has the right to ban gay marriage.
Consider this example. If I were on a diet, it would be considered my personal affair. To some extent a “personal issue” may arise if I am at a restaurant and someone at the table next to me is eating chocolate cake. Using Walker’s logic, I should have the right to tell said person consuming the cake that they cannot eat the cake due to the fact I have a “personal issue” with cake eating. Of course this is completely absurd, just as a ban on gay marriage is.
Many, including Walker, believe we should stick to the state Constitution on the issue of marriage equality. Because of Wisconsin Referendum 1, gay marriage is banned. Ironically, a Marquette Law poll published April 16 shows 56 percent of Wisconsin residents favor making same-sex marriage legal, while only 34 percent oppose it. Thus it is clear Wisconsin Referendum 1 is stuck in the past and should not be a part of decision making anymore. In America, majority rules, while the minority retains its rights. Keeping this referendum is completely ludicrous, and a federal court has ruled that the ban was unconstitutional.
When looking to the American Constitution with regards to this issue, one needs to look no further than the 14th Amendment. It asserts that “No State shall … deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Denying a gay couple the right to marry and enjoy love in the way any other couple could enjoy inherently makes them a second rate citizen. The 14th Amendment protects against this. If Walker supports the constitution, as he claimed at the GOP Summit in New Hampshire, he should support gay marriage.
Walker is right: Marriage is a very personal issue and people should support the constitutions of the state and the country. He is wrong, though, in assuming he or any law has the right to tell any person how to live out their lives, or who they can or cannot marry. Walker, and anyone who is against marriage equality, has the right to keep their “personal issue” with gay marriage out of everyone else’s personal lives.
I quote the late Chief Justice Earl Warren: “Marriage is one of the ‘basic civil rights of man,’ fundamental to our very existence and survival.”
Luke Schaetzel ([email protected]) is a freshman intending to major in journalism and political science.
