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| GAY MARRIAGE | |
 July 11, 2003  | |
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A Massachusetts court will rule over the next few days in the case of seven homosexual couples who have sued the state for the right to legally marry. Betty Ann Bowser reports on the gay marriage debate.
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BETTY ANN BOWSER: Hillary and Julie Goodridge have been together 16 years. The lesbian couple wanted to share the same last name so several years ago they legally changed it. In 1995, Julie was artificially inseminated and delivered their daughter Annie, now seven. So the Goodridges are a family in most all traditional ways except one: They are unable to legally marry, which they say is unfair. JULIE GOODRIDGE: Because if I drop dead in the living room for example, Hillary has no right to have my body removed, regardless of the fact that she's my power of attorney and durable power of attorney. She has no right over my body.
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| The Supreme Court sodomy decision | ||||||||||||||||||||
| BETTY ANN BOWSER: Last year, the Goodridges joined six other gay or lesbian couples and sued the state of Massachusetts. They claimed they were being discriminated against, being denied equal protection guaranteed under the state's constitution because the state did not allow them to get a marriage license. A decision in their case is expected any day. This comes on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court decision just weeks ago that invalidated a Texas law that made sodomy a crime. Harvard Law Professor Martha Minow says that doesn't automatically mean the next step is to legalize gay marriage, but she says courts are starting to show more acceptance of gay rights issues.
It is true, as some commentators indicate, there is a difference between tolerance and equality. But I think the next step, once people start to realize these are people just like us. They're our neighbors, sending their kids to school. We are not allowed by law to discriminate against them, and in fact we see that they deserve the same kind of treatment in the country as everybody else. |
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| The definition of "marriage" | ||||||||||||||||||||
| BETTY ANN BOWSER: That's just what worries Ron Crews. He's a former minister and director of the Massachusetts Family Institute, a Christian conservative interest group. Crews says if gay marriage is permitted, it could lead to other more disturbing types of relationships.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: The Catholic Church has joined Crews' group in opposition to the Goodridge case. It filed a brief maintaining that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. Catholic Conference Associate Policy Director Dan Avila also argues that gay and lesbian couples are not being denied equal protection under the law.
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| Canada's marriage laws | ||||||||||||||||||||
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BETTY ANN BOWSER: Claire Humphrey and Vickie Henry aren't waiting for arguments like that to be settled in the United States. The Boston couple has been together for nine years. In 1998 on the 4th of July, they had a religious marriage ceremony in Wellesley, complete with a minister and bridesmaids. But they have been unable to be legally married. After being artificially inseminated, Vickie gave birth to their daughter Lucy, 22 months ago.
VICKIE HENRY: We are going to have a baby in a couple of months and there are always risks, although we hope everything will turn out, just fine with that. We want to put as many protections in place as we feel like we can. BETTY ANN BOWSER: And they say if they were married, Humphrey would not have to go through a complicated adoption process like she did after Lucy was born.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: But it's not clear whether a Canadian marriage license would be recognized in the United States. Still, conservatives are worried that courts are now engaging in judicial activism with gay marriage, and they want to curtail some of that authority. |
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| The next civil rights battleground? | ||||||||||||||||||||
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RON CREWS: I do believe that there's going to be a growing movement of folks that says, "Wait a minute. We didn't elect these judges to make laws." Our system says that they're to interpret, not make laws. And these actions have been exceeding the bounds that we believe they have the constitutional responsibility for.
MARTHA MINOW: Family law has many functions, but the most important function is to reflect and guide the way people actually live. And if the law has no relationship to the way people are actually living, it will be ignored. This is a worldwide phenomenon. There is a growth of freedom and an exercise of freedom by people to choose how to live and with whom to be intimate, and if people are living in an intimate relationship, the law has to eventually come to recognize that.
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JULIE
GOODRIDGE Are you ready? 
HILLARY
GOODRIDGE: For example, we are not considered kin to each other. We are not consider
spouses. If either of us dies, becomes disabled, all things mostly that happen
when you're older or things none of us want to think about, disability, death,
bad things, accidents. It's in those times that you realize, I have no relationship
to this person. If Julie were to die, it is possible would I have to sell the
house because I would have to pay tax on the inheritance, which most spouses would
not have to do and we have a child to protect, to consider too. So certainly raising
Annie has brought all of this to the fore in a protective way for me that I never
considered before. 
MARTHA
MINOW, Harvard Law School: When the United States Supreme Court struck down the
sodomy law this past month and said that this actually violates liberty, that
is a recognition that we must tolerate practices that are performed privately
by free individuals who are consenting. That, I think, is a first step in a free
country toward what ultimately, I think will be equality, equal treatment. 
RON
CREWS, Massachusetts Family Institute: A word means a what it means. Marriage
means the union of a man and a woman, and if that definition was changed, it's
no longer marriage as far as I'm concerned. If they are successful in redefining
marriage between a male and a female, then is the next step to redefine marriage
to three people or four or what? What is the ultimate goal, and by what standard
do either judges or legislators decide this word is going to be defined? How are
they going to define this word? 
DAN
AVILA, Massachusetts Catholic Conference: When we talk of people who are not able
to be married, we don't normally think of them as being demeaned. For example,
a brother and a sister cannot get married. A grandparent and a grandchild cannot
get married. Does that mean that we are sending the message that they are less
than equal? That they are somehow as individuals not human beings with dignity?
No, we don't normally make that equation. 
Now
they are expecting a son, and in two weeks they're going to Canada. That's because
last month, the province of Ontario threw out a law that banned gay marriage.
The province of British Columbia quickly followed suit. So Humphrey and Henry
are getting married again, this time legally. 
CLAIRE
HUMPHREY: I had to wait five months before I had any legal relationship to her,
even though I'm her primary caretaker, until it came up on the court calendar.
And that got pretty frightening because there was a time when Vicki was 3,000
miles away on a business trip, and as infants do, Lucy came down, out of nowhere,
with a 103 fever. She was tiny. And I'm racing around the house trying to get
to the pediatrician. And I had to go back and hope that the paperwork that I had
was enough that I would be able to help her. I have never felt so helpless in
my life, so inadequate in my life. 
BETTY
ANN BOWSER: Crews and others are trying to get the Massachusetts legislature to
pass an amendment to the state's constitution to define marriage as a union between
a man and a woman. It would be similar to so-called "Defense of Marriage
Acts" passed by 37 other states. But whether that happens or not, Harvard's
Minow says the issue of gay marriage will likely become the next major civil rights
battleground facing America. 
BETTY
ANN BOWSER: But couples like the Goodridges are concerned. They know conservative
lawmakers in Washington have started a movement to pass a constitutional amendment
that would make heterosexual marriage the law of the land.