Loving

“When any society says that I cannot marry a certain person, that society has cut off a segment of my freedom.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ,1958

Mildred Loving died yesterday. She and her husband, Richard, were the couple who fought the last vestiges of legal segregation, the miscegenation law in Virginia. In 1967, the Supreme Court finally struck down 16 state laws prohibiting interracial marriage; at one time 38 states had such laws, which decreed that the marriage of two people violated the 'peace and dignity' of their states.

According to news reports, the Lovings shunned publicity and wanted simply to live together as husband and wife and raise their family. She once said, "What we wanted, we wanted to come home."

In its ruling, written by Justice Warren (who also wrote the Brown v. Board of Ed decision) the Court declared: "There is patently no legitimate overriding purpose independent of invidious racial discrimination which justifies this classification." Reread that sentence: "There is patently no legitimate overriding purpose independent of invidious homophobia which justifies this classification."

Mildred spoke publicly once in favor of gay marriage. How could she not? Don't we all just want to come home? May the Lovings rest in peace, once again at home, together.