SwimFinsSF

Cause for Pride…

Over the past year I’ve struggled to find cause to be proud of our country and our actions. Don’t get me wrong - I still feel very lucky to live where I do and have the freedoms I have. But I’ve also been far less than proud of the behavior of our elected officials and our attitudes toward the rest of the world. Lately I’ve seen a trend toward infringing personal liberties and rights, both at home and abroad..

Well today I’m feeling thrilled and proud again:

Supreme Court strikes down Texas sodomy law

In a 6 to 3 vote today the supreme court has found that we have the same right to personal privacy and freedom as everyone else.. For me this case is HUGE and the overwhelming nature of the vote is even more monmumental. The supreme court of our country has found homosexuals have the same right to privacy guaranteed in the US Constitution as every other American. Its as simple as that.

The 3 usual suspects (Scalia, Rehnquist, and Thomas) with Scalia at the helm dissented but that was to be expected. The fact that the other 6 took a stand to protect individual liberties has me dancing in the halls:

The men “are entitled to respect for their private lives,” Kennedy wrote.

“The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime,” he said.

(from Yahoo!)

This decision reminds me of the decision years ago overturning Colorado’s Amendment 2 and reminds that our system of checks and balances, while maddening sometimes, overall is a strong and very positive thing. The last lines of the Majority opinion delivered by Justice Kennedy on Amendment 2 were amazing:

We must conclude that Amendment 2 classifies homosexuals not to further a proper legislative end but to make them unequal to everyone else. This Colorado cannot do. A State cannot so deem a class of persons a stranger to its laws. Amendment 2 violates the Equal Protection Clause, and the judgment of the Supreme Court of Colorado is affirmed.

Sometimes…. not always… but some times (and probably most of the time) our system works… and makes me VERY proud to be American - and Pride week in San Francisco couldn’t have been a better week for this to come down… You’d better believe there will be celebration in the streets!