Mildred Loving has died, and gay people everywhere should mourn her passing.

Why should they do so? Because when the day comes that gays and lesbians argue their case for gay marriage before the Supreme Court (as that day must someday come), Mildred Loving will speak out from the dead on their behalf.

Mildred Loving was a black woman in Virginia who fell in love with a white man. They wanted to marry, but fell afoul of Virginia’s anti-miscegenation (interracial marriage) statute. They filed a lawsuit claiming a violation of their constitutional rights that found its way to the Supreme Court in 1967. The result striking down the statute was announced in Loving v. Virginia, arguably one of the most important Supreme Court cases of all time.

Chief Justice Warren delivered the Opinion of the Court, and said the following words, profound in their implications:

Marriage is one of the “basic civil rights of man,” fundamental to our very existence and survival. Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U.S. 535, 541 (1942). See also Maynard v. Hill, 125 U.S. 190 (1888). To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State. (emphasis added)

The Court affirmed that marriage is a fundamental right that may not be abridged by the state absent the showing of a compelling state interest (a standard that is very difficult to meet.) These words in Loving v. Virginia are the best weapon that gays and lesbians have for persuading the Supreme Court that the fundamental right of marriage should be extended not only to members of different races, but also to those wishing to enter a same-sex marriage. In both cases, the state is preventing an individual from marrying the consenting adult partner of his choice.

So as we go about our business today, let us all honor the memory of this brave woman who will be forever remembered as part of the civil rights tradition in this nation.

Tags: gay-marriage, loving-v.-virginia