Mildred and Richard Loving in 1967 battled ban on mixed-race marriage. (Photo by Bettmann/Corbis)
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By DAN?RENZI
Thursday, May 08, 2008
FRIEND
Mildred Loving
It is with great sadness that we award this Friend of the Week, as it is also a “goodbye.” Mildred Loving, one of America’s greatest (and least-known) civil rights leaders, passed away on May 5. She was 68.
Mildred Loving was a co-defendant in the landmark civil rights case Loving vs. Virginia, which ruled that laws barring marriage based on race were unconstitutional. The case began in 1958, when Mildred (who was black) and her husband Richard (who was white) crossed from their home in Virginia to the District of Columbia to get married, evading Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act which barred inter-racial marriages. But upon returning home, they were promptly arrested, jailed, convicted of the “crime,” and forced to leave the state--or spend a year in prison.
The Lovings took their case all the way to the Supreme Court, and in 1967 the Court ruled in favor of the couple—not only overturning their conviction, but also striking down all marriage bans based on race. Richard died tragically in a car accident in 1975, but Mildred went on to become a champion of civil rights, publicly including the lesbian & gay community in her efforts. She claimed that she and her husband didn’t intend “to make a political statement or start a fight” when they got married. But looking back, she appreciated “the freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the 'wrong kind of person' for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry.” It’s a cause as loving as her name.
FOE
Grand Cayman Islands Police
Speaking of legal troubles: Aaron Chandler, a 23-year-old college student from Massachusetts, was vacationing in Grand Cayman with his boyfriend this past weekend, They decided to visit a local nightclub, and while on the dance floor, Chandler planted a kiss on his boyfriend. Local bar patrons complained, but Chandler was unfazed--he insisted that his “quick kiss” was in no way obscene—and he later kissed his boyfriend again, as they prepared to leave. An off-duty police officer saw the two young lads, arrested them for “distress or a disturbance to another member of the public,” and hauled them off to the pokey. They were later released with no charges filed, although the officer tried to make them promise they would not kiss in public for the rest of their vacation.
The Cayman Islands is a territory of the United Kingdom, and is supposed to follow British law, but, they still insist on following their own set of rules. Remember, this is the same government that denied permission to Rosie O’Donnell’s R Family Cruise to dock back in 1998, saying a boat full of gay people wasn’t welcome on their shores.
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