LESSONS FROM THE LAND OF MILK, MARTIN AND MARRIAGE

Rabbi Sydney Mintz

As I sat in the darkened Kabuki Theatre, surrounded by hundreds of Jews at the Jewish Community Federation's screening of the newly released movie Milk, I experienced a tremendous feeling of deja vu. Its depiction of the lesbian and gay community's struggle against the Briggs' Amendment in 1978, an effort to ban gays from teaching in public schools, transported me back to November 4 of this year, when we not only elected the first African American president of the United States, but California citizens voted discrimination into our state's constitution for the first time in history. I was struck by the immense paradox: thirty years ago, the gay community successfully fought and won against discrimination aimed at gay and lesbian teachers. In this most recent election, Californians voted to take the right to marry away from this same population. At Congregation Emanu-El, we experienced a rush of couples, our own members and other Jews who flocked to California from out of state, hoping to be married before November 4, just in case Proposition 8 passed and their right to marry was taken away. Although this is not only about marriage, and civil rights, it is also about having the right to marry your partner that grants you 1,049 federal rights that the unmarried cannot attain. I was struck again, this time as a Jew, by the irony that on September 15, 1935, in Nazi Germany, the first of the Nuremberg laws took away the right for a Jew to marry a German: "Marriages between Jews and subjects of the state of Germany or related bloods is forbidden. Marriages nevertheless concluded are invalid, even if concluded abroad to circumvent this law".

I write about this, not as a warning that we may be traversing this same horrifying downward-spiral, but as a reminder of our experience at the hands of those who took away rights that people assumed were theirs, simply because they were human beings. In 1958, the political theorist Hannah Arendt, an emigre from Nazi Germany, wrote an essay entitled "Reflections on Little Rock", in response to the 1957 civil rights struggle for the racial integration of Little Rock, Arkansas' public schools. She wrote that anti-miscegenation laws were a deeper injustice than the racial segregation of public schools. The free choice of a spouse, she argued was "an elementary human right:" She continued, "Even political rights, like the right to vote, and nearly all other rights enumerated in the Constitution, are secondary to the inalienable human rights to Ôlife, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence; and to this category the right to home and marriage unquestionably belongs."

Although our country has come a long way in the area of race relations, it was as recent as 1967, in Loving v. Virginia, that the United States Supreme Court declared Virginia's antimiscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act" of 1924, unconstitutional, thereby overturning the 1883 Pace v. Alabama ruling and ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage. That was 31 years ago. In 2000, Californians voted to support Proposition 22, the Knight Initiative, which stated simply that: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." This ballot initiative passed with 61% in support and 38% opposed. Fast forward to 2008 when I donated money, time, and effort; spoke out alongside our clergy, who all support marriage equality and who are all committed to officiating at same sex marriages. Still, I knew, somewhere in my kishkes, that Proposition 8 would pass. At a discussion at the dinner table I asked my sons which they would rather have: victory for Barack Obama or the defeat of Proposition 8. I wanted to gauge their understanding of the relative importance and effect of the presidential election versus that of Proposition 8. They both chose the victory of Barack Obama. I agreed with them. In order for our country to move forward toward equality, toward a future of inclusion and tolerance, compassion and righteousness, I believe that we need a leader who embodies all of those qualities. We are moving forward slowly. Unlike in 2000, Proposition 8 passed by a much slimmer margin of only 53% to 47%. We are heading in the direction of equality. But, it won't happen without immense and concerted effort.

This month we celebrate the inauguration of President Barack Obama and we also celebrate the spirit and life of a man who dreamed an incredibly courageous dream, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For the past 21 years, our congregation has come together with the historic Third Baptist Church to remind ourselves of the possibility of hope, and of our shared dream for the future. We have been partners in the Back on Track Tutoring Program and our pulpit exchange for over two decades. This year, the Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend Pulpit exchange falls on the weekend prior to the Presidential Inauguration. This year we are planning something new. We will open the weekend with an "Equality for All" Shabbat. We are expanding our service to include the interfaith community, politicians and all those who are reaching forward toward equality. We do this because it is the right thing to do, because our Reform movement is in support of marriage equality and to acknowledge and recognize Reverend Brown's stance on marriage equality.

At a time when the faith community has been factionalized and divided around this issue, Reverend Brown stands out as a minority member of the Baptist community who supports equality for all. His stance reminds me of my teacher, Rabbi David Hartman, a member of Israel's Orthodox community who believes that instead of rehabilitating gays and lesbians to become straight, we need to rehabilitate the community to accept and include those members of the Jewish community who have been marginalized and excluded. By inviting me and other gay and lesbian rabbis to participate in his rabbinic fellowship at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, he made a profound and enlightened statement about belonging and equality,a statement not only to the Orthodox community, but to the entire Jewish people.

Still, as a rabbi, it is a challenging reality that I can stand under a chuppah and perform a marriage, while I myself cannot get married in a same-sex partnership. In some ways, this small personal irony is perhaps the most illuminating of them all.

So, as we open this new year of 2009, I encourage you to do three things:

1. Go see "Milk".
2. Learn about the two pieces of legislation (Senate Resolution 7 and HR 5 in the Assembly) launched by Sen. Mark Leno and Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (both D-San Francisco). If approved, the bills would place both houses of the California Legislature on record as opposing the controversial initiative of Proposition 8 and declaring it an illegal revision to the state constitution.
3. Join us for the Equality for All Shabbat on Friday night, January 16 at 7:00 pm in the Main Sanctuary. Bring your friends, too. Reverend Brown will be delivering the sermon. Please join us again at Third Baptist Church on Sunday, January 18, at 10:00 am, where we will pray and remember and celebrate and commit ourselves anew to continuing our work and the spirit of our partnership. I will be delivering the sermon that morning.

   When Coretta Scott King, civil rights leader and wife of Dr. King, was interviewed about marriage equality she said: "I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people." This year Dr. Martin Luther King would have been 80 years old. Let us not ask what Dr. King would do today about racism, about civil rights for gays and lesbians, about the state of affairs in our country. Instead, now that a new day is dawning, let us each ask ourselves what can I do to "make justice flow down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream?" (Amos 5:24)