As Tuesday came to an end, Americans once again had the opportunity to celebrate, comment on, like, retweet, resent or simply marvel in the majesty of yet another display of the power of the people and the strong foundation of Democracy. In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned Proposition 8, a California initiative that recognizes marriage as a legal union only between heterosexual couples.
Regardless of your stance, or moral objectons or agreement on the court’s decision and the issue itself, regardless of your definition of marriage or what type of union you deem to be “sacred,” what remains to be recognized is the true reach of the Constitution and the unspoken (in theory) agreement that we share equal rights as a nation. Now, at least in California or Iowa or New York, this equality might include marrying a member of your own sex.
Before the questions come pouring in or the cards come tumbling down and the proverbial fists start flying, we must realize that we are on the brink of a revolution, if only in the ideological or metaphorical sense.
From “Year of the Protest” to “Arab Spring” and “Occupied America,” you’ve read the headlines and you might even have participated. Our generation is maturing. We’re finding our voice. And though the message varies at times from a unified whining to the cries of the oppressed, people are listening. Our parents and the rest of their generation are listening to us.
And this means something. There is a myriad of adverbs and adjectives that would be appropriate in describing Generation Y (us) over the Baby Boomers (our parents, legislators). “Plugged-in,” “lazy,” “educated in a higher setting,” would all work, but the one that sticks out the most, or at least carries the most weight, is “more tolerant”.
Our overall charisma and foundation as a generation teeters on the fact that most of us just generally accept and tolerate others in a more open and understanding way than those of the past. Collectively, ideas like segregation, racism, sexism and prejudice are scoffed at or dismissed as out-of-touch notions of a past we’d like to set ourselves apart from.
So what does this mean for Arizona, a historically not-so-accepting state? As time moves forward will our lawmakers be forced to conform? As our more open-minded generation takes the reins, will same-sex marriage still be a hot social issue?
The Civil Rights movement brought racial inequality into the national focus in the same way that the Women’s Liberation movement fought against gender inequality. In modern times, to oppose either of these ideals would kind of place you in a minority thought process. Does the overruling of Proposition 8 in California symbolize the next big epiphany in American equality? It will be interesting to find out.
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