The Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia (1967) resulted in the striking down of state laws that prohibited whites and African Americans from marrying. Mildred Loving, one of the parties in the case, issued a statement on the fortieth-anniversary of her case in which she urged that same-sex couples be allowed to marry.

Q. Are the two issues—laws prohibiting interracial marriage and laws prohibiting same-sex marriage—similar? Why or why not?

I believe laws prohibiting interracial marriage and laws prohibiting same-sex marriage are similar. Marriage is a unique bond between a man and a woman, who agree to live together and fulfill each others moral and physical demands. However, such a bondage between a woman and a woman or a man and a man would be against nature. This is a widely accepted notion. In the Loving v. Virginia case, the judge believed when God created different races and...

14th 1924 1967 1973 1998 abound accept accord aclu act adopt african agre allow also although amend american analog anniversari anti anti-miscegen appear appli argu argument arrang associ ban basi begin behalf behavior belief believ black black-whit bond bondag case casual centuri child children choic choos cite classif claus clinton colin confus consid constitut contin contract could coupl court creat defens defin demand despit didn differ disord doesn due elect end equal explain famili fear file first fortieth fortieth-anniversari foundat freedom fulfil fundament gay generat god govern ground histor hold homosexu howev idea integr interfer interraci intimaci invers involv issu judg justifi kennedi kind law legal let live live-and-let-l ll love lynch major man marri marriag matthew may mean men mildr mind mirror miscegen moral motion nation natur non non-marriag notion one oppon opposit order orient other parent parti partner past phenomenon physic place platform plus polit powel practic prejudic presid pressur prevent process procreat prohibit propon protect psychiatr psycholog pursu q race racial randal recogn redefin refus regard reign relat relationship religi result reveal right said same-sex saw separ sex sexual shepard sign signific similar social societ sole sought spectrum sphere state statement status statut still stood strike subject support suprem thus today togeth toler total trigger true twenti twenty-first two uniqu unit unthink urg v valu viabl violat violenc virginia weight white whose wide woman worker wors would wrong