As editor, chief writer, and the guy who's fed-up with seeing legislators from both sides of the aisle propose laws that appear to be based more on emotions than logic, I'm going to take a point of personal privilege here and offer my unsolicited, (but no less valid than anyone else appearing to testify today) opinion on Georgia State Senate Resolution 595, the proposed amendment to the Georgia Constitution that will prohibit gay marriages.

In the case of the proposed gay marriage amendment, I posit that the Georgia amendment itself will be in violation of the U.S. Constitution as it is written today. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution states the following applicable law of the land:

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

I have underlined the applicable passage which, I believe, applies to SR 595. As a society, we have to decide one thing: is marriage a privilege or a right, or does it matter?

In actuality, I don't think it really matters if you define marriage as a right or a privilege because either definition would appear to make marriage a protected act under the U.S. Constitution. Unalienable rights cannot be taken away by any man-made laws (or, rather, shouldn't be allowed to do so), and "privileges" are directly protected by the 14th Amendment, as seen above.

If marriage is a privilege, then the privilege, by sheer definition of a privilege, must apply to every person and no state law can be written that abridges a privilege possessed by every citizen, regardless of their classification or sub-classification. If two gays meet the definition of being U.S. citizens, then two gays should have the privilege of getting married, and the 14th Amendment protects their privileges by its precise wording.

If marriage is an unalienable right, then every person has a right to get married to any other human being, and no law can be made to abridge that unalienable right unless the U.S. Constitution is amended to state "...unless a majority of the people decide that a privilege or a right can be taken away from any class of citizens."

Change the U.S. Constitution, throw-out the 14th Amendment, or do whatever you need to do to destroy the Constitution, and this state's legislature and citizenry will be able to make any damn law it feels like making...whether it be prohibiting gay marriages, or prohibiting gay people from voting, or African-Americans from voting, or Caucasians from voting, or Jews...or, Catholics, or...whatever the majority feels like passing.

Until that time, Georgia legislators should stop this silly, but costly-to-the-taxpayers game of making holier-than-thou laws. Just my unsolicited and un-sworn opinion... :-)

Bill Simon
Editor
Political Vine