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ACLU of Massachusetts Applauds State Attorney General’s Defense of Marriage Equality (5/16/2007)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
Statement of ACLU of Massachusetts Executive Director Carol Rose
BOSTON - Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley recently
made a forthright statement of her well-founded legal judgment in a speech to
the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association: marriage equality in the
Commonwealth must be defended in the event that a proposed constitutional
amendment survives the next legislative step onto the ballot. The ACLU of
Massachusetts applauds Martha Coakley's leadership on this
issue.
Predictably, the Attorney General has come under fire from
opponents of equality. They conveniently forget, however, that Coakley's stand
is principled: it would be wrong to take away anyone's fundamental right to
equal treatment under the law through a popular vote.
We wonder how
the opponents of equality would feel if this situation were reversed: if they
were not being asked to simply accept that others be treated equally, but were
actually themselves threatened with being constitutionally denied important
legal rights and protections. We suspect they would be grateful for the
leadership of a civil libertarian like Coakley.
Voting on the
rights of others undermines the most fundamental values of the
Commonwealth. The right of every citizen to be free from this threat
trumps the right of those who want to use the ballot initiative process to nurse
a grievance against another group of citizens.
As a part of the
MassEquality coalition, the ACLU of Massachusetts is working to defeat the
proposed amendment in the Legislature. If it unwisely goes to a vote, we
will help fight it on the ballot. And if the result of the election were
that popular prejudice stripped away the rights of an entire class of citizens,
we would join Attorney General Coakley in fighting to overturn it-but it would
be far wiser for the Legislature to simply stop this measure now and to bring
this divisive discussion to an end.
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