OPINION
10
WWW.GU I LFORDIAN.COM
Virginia District Court declares same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional
Since Amendment One passed in North Carolina on May
8, 2012, when inequality won and love lost, my faith in my
country has plummeted to an all time low.
Bom and raised in the South, I have always been ashamed
of our conservatism, especially towards
gay marriage that affects many of my
loved ones. Even when it is not a personal
matter, it is still disturbing to thirik about.
On Feb. 13, though, things began
looking up.
U.S. District Court Judge Arenda L.
Wright Allen for the Eastern District of
Wginia overturned Virginia's statutory
same-sex marriage ban, finding it
imconstitutional. This is one of the
strongest legal reversals yet of restrictive
marriage amendments in the South.
Since the Defense of Marriage Act was
overturned by the Supreme Court, there
have been 12 cases before federal judges
fighting for marriage equality. In every case, equality has
won.
Of course, the South is no stranger to stmggling with dvil
rights.
"We look at the history of marriage rights in the U.S., and
it was once illegal for African-Americans to get married, and
interracial marriage has been outlawed previously," said
junior Shelby Smi&.
BY ALLISON
STALBERG
Today, we still have bigotry and oppression lasting from
our dark history. What may be different between then and
now is time.
"(Marriage equality is) one of the fastest movements that
we've seen in civil rights," said Cara Messina, secretary of
Guilford PRIDE.
Many believe religious institutions are bound to slow down
the fre^om of marriage, but today churches are changing
from within.
Jenny Shultz, associate pastor at United Church of Chapel
Hill, married her wife during the Amendment One campaign
at her own church.
"I believe that the truest form of the separation of church
and state will eventually be what frees this country from
her own demise," said Shultz in an email interview with
The Guilfordian. "While the government holds the 'seal' of
marriage and the church, the 'sacrament,' there will continue
to be controversy."
Shultz is not the only one who married in North Carolina
despite the lack of legality.
Garrett Hall, a private equity investor for AlpInvest
Partners, met his partner at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill and wanted to marry there with his friends and
family present. With the legal stuff done in New York, he had
the party in North Carolina.
"I hear the argument over states' rights, that states should
be able to decide these sorts of things," said Hall in a phone
interview with The Guilfordian. "But I think back to dvil
rights movements, and if states were allowed to dedde these
things then we might be in a very different place — a place I
don't think we, with our American values, would want to be."
The counties that voted against Amendment One were the
homes of universities.
Some daimed this resulted from highly educated people
voting against Amendment One.
I think a dearer condusion could be age.
"As yormger people become voters across the coimtry,
the issue of same sex-marriage and equal rights for non
heterosexuals are not the wedge issues that they used to
be," said gay rights activist Nancy Sableski, school program
runner for the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, in an
email interview with The Guilfordian.
I am not the only optimist. Leaders, ministers, students
and people of all dasses, races and sexualities are growing
hopeful as well.
"Marriage equality cases are now pending in all but eight
of the 33 states that currently forbid gay couples to marry,"
said director of communications for Equality NC Jen Jones in
an email interview with The Guilfordian.
'This avalanche of lawsuits, as well as meteoric shifts
in public support for the freedom to marry, puts incredible
pressure on the Supreme Court to sooner rather than later
take up the issue of whether equal actually means equal."
I believe that with the way things are going in this coimtry,
the question of legality of same-sex marriage is no longer "if,"
but "when."
Core Value of the Week: integrity & the new president
fnfepgrity is
hraing sboig mala!
"A cornerstone of integrity is transparency.
Our next president cpuld institute true
^aii^arency in the CcMfege's finances and
allocation of resources."
DiyaAbdo,*^
♦ .'lUf m: —
[ttd^draiui
"Inte^ty would he to take care
of the alumni who can't contribute
huge checks each year... We don't
even have a parking space for us to
come on campus without getting
a ticket Guilford mil milk the last
dime from you and use the term
'integrity' to defend it."
"I consider the word 'integrity^ to
be specious in most references and do
so in the case of Guilford College's
current president and senior staff. They
pose well but act in an insistent way
that does not allow a point of view
other than their own... This current
administration addressed crumbling
bricks, not crumbling minds. The
administration dressed up the College
with all the pretty things but stripped
the place of integrity."
"A key underetanding of the Quaker
testimony of integrity relates to the root
meaning of 'integrity;' wholeness. Think back
to algebra in school: 'integer.' Integrity means
making life a whole — one piece... All of
Guilford should reflect our core values; all of
Guilford should be a 'whole.'
"The next president can not only insist on that
— s/he can model it! The president should be
someone who embodies all our core values, not
just give lip service to them."
Genter/campus ministiy coordinatCM"
"Integrity, like all the core values, means little at Guilford. We use the core values as a
marketing tool, while many ignore ethics and integrity altogether. Integrity must mean that
we market our college as we are and not as some utopian vision of what we should be."
BY ROBERT PACHECO
senior