Reply #190: The notion is one of codified, institutionalized, discrimintation.

[bluedawg12]

"And please let's all start calling them Gay Jim Crow Laws for that's exactly what they are. They are laws designed to take away or abrogate civil rights that are or may be recognized by an independent judiciary. That's what Jim Crow laws were all about - abrogating the plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment.

http://open.salon.com/blog/john_mortimer_esq/2009/06/19/obama_doma_treachery_betrayal_and_invidious_gay_jim_crow"


Laws which signal to society that one segment is less deserving of full equal rights under law than the majority then lead to consequences as during the hate crimes of the Jim Crow era.

On the other hand, hate crimes against GLBT people are legitimized, for some, by laws that signal the very message of "in"equality and "in"humanity of a minority.

These laws are wrong and and we should support the fight against the unequal appliaction of justice for all, not for some.

"Understand this critical principal for it goes to our entire argument for marriage equality. In a nutshell the essential argument of gay activists and legal scholars is that marriage is a ‘fundamental’ civil right that may be found in the Right of Privacy and that is guaranteed under and protected by the ‘due process’ and ‘equal protection’ clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of U. S. Constitution. Since marriage is a ‘fundamental’ right Congress is without power to legislate in any manner that denies or abrogates that right unless it can show both “a compelling legislative interest” and ‘no less restrictive alternative.’


<snip>

The point is simple: the U.S. Constitution trumps all congressional law and since Marriage is a ‘fundamental’ right and since gays are ‘persons’ under the Fourteenth Amendment, then DOMA is unconstitutional and the DOJ has an ethical duty not to defend it but argue in favor of higher law - the U.S. Constitution - and ask that DOMA be ignored on Constitutional grounds.

http://open.salon.com/blog/john_mortimer_esq/2009/06/19/obama_doma_treachery_betrayal_and_invidious_gay_jim_crow<<



>> "The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans.

Some examples of Jim Crow laws are the segregation of public schools, public places and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms and restaurants for whites and blacks. The U.S. military was also segregated."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws<<