Time for another tea party

We said much of what we had to say on the subject of the Massachusetts Supreme Court’s gay marriage ruling this past February when it issued an advisory opinion rejecting civil unions as an alternative. Today the Massachusetts Supreme Court’s gay marriage ruling takes effect.
The subject of gay marriage is tiresome if not imbecilic, but we’re obviously not going to be allowed to ignore it. To say that the proposition is imbecilic is not to derogate the intelligence of the folks whose political maneuvers have brought us to this pass. They have brilliantly stolen the mantle and perverted the meaning of the civil rights movement that was based on the proposition that all men are created equal.
The love that won’t shut up now demands the approval of those who want little more than the inner freedom to disapprove of certain conduct and to preserve legal recognition of the natural distinctions on which the family is based so that the family might be preserved.
According to the Massachusetts Supreme Court in its ruling, “The history of our nation has demonstrated that separate is seldom, if ever, equal.” Legislative recognition of same-sex civil unions short of marriage would establish “unconstitutional, inferior, and discriminatory status for same-sex couples.” Same-sex couples unable to wed, we are to infer, are like Linda Brown, being held outside the schoolhouse door because of the color of her skin.
To us, the four justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Court who joined in the ruling look at least as tyrannical as the king whose taxes provoked the Boston tea party and helped precipitate the revolt against monarchy. Today we badly need to meditate on the first principles of freedom and take action consistent with our understanding.