• Ideas
  • politics

Sen. Elizabeth Warren: Constitution Had Everything To Do With Gay Marriage Ruling

5 minute read
Ideas
Elizabeth Warren is a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts.

Our Constitution fiercely guards freedom and liberty, and strongly disapproves of state-sanctioned discrimination. The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Obergefell v. Hodges recognizing a fundamental right to equal marriage for LGBT Americans sits squarely within both text and tradition. Indeed, what is truly remarkable about this case is not the outcome, but rather the people who made it possible — all of the many individuals across our nation who came forward to fight for the liberty and equality that our Constitution guarantees for all of us.

The inclusion of a Bill of Rights, with its protections for religious liberty, freedom of speech, and due process, was an essential condition of ratifying the Constitution and bringing the colonies together into one United States of America. Ratification of the Reconstruction Amendments, including the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection, was a necessary component of rebuilding our union after the Civil War. Without these rights and liberties, there would be no Constitution — and no nation.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in Obergefell that “the generations that wrote and ratified the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment did not presume to know the extent of freedom in all of its dimensions, and so they entrusted to future generations a charter protecting the right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning.” Some would prefer to pretend otherwise, but the Constitution did not come with an owner’s manual of how-to instructions for working through every conceivable situation across the centuries — instead, it outlined principles to serve as guideposts. Applying the Constitution’s terms to unforeseen circumstances does not go beyond the job of a judge; that is the job of a judge.

Even so, for generations, these broad constitutional protections stood side-by-side with state-sanctioned discrimination against LGBT Americans. States criminalized same-sex relationships, banned same-sex marriages, and excluded their own citizens from anti-discrimination protections. This story isn’t new. For nearly a hundred years, systematic, state-sanctioned discrimination against African Americans coexisted with constitutional protections adopted after the Civil War specifically to prevent it. The lesson in both cases is that constitutional freedoms and liberties are meaningful only when our nation is courageous enough not to look away from them.

As a nation, we see now that discrimination heaped on LGBT Americans violates protections laid out in the Constitution. We see it because countless Americans have stepped forward to make themselves seen and to expose ugly discrimination for what it is: a denial of liberty and equality for our fellow citizens.

See Gay Pride Parades from Around the World

gay pride parade 2015 LGBT
A couple kiss in Trafalgar Square after the annual Pride in London Parade on June 27, 2015 in London.Rob Stothard—Getty Images
gay pride parade 2015LGBT
Actor Ian McKellen waves to the crowd as he attends as grand marshal during the annual Gay Pride parade in New York City on June 28, 2015. Eduardo Munoz—Reuters
Couple carry an American flag and a rainbow flag during the annual Gay Pride parade in New York
A couple carry an American flag and a rainbow flag during the annual Gay Pride parade in New York on June 28, 2015.Eduardo Munoz—Reuters
gay pride parade 2015 LGBT
A reveler attends the annual Pride in London Parade on June 27, 2015 in London.Rob Stothard—Getty Images
gay pride parade 2015 LGBT
People take part in the annual Gay Pride Parade on June 27, 2015 in Dublin.Clodagh Kilcoyne—Getty Images
gay pride parade 2015 LGBT
Fifty thousand people walk on the street for gay lesbian and diversity rights in Milan on June 27, 2015.Roberto Finizio—Pacific Press/Corbis
gay pride month 2015 LGBT
People march in front of the Colosseum during the Gay Pride Parade (LGBT) on June 13, 2015 in Rome. Filippo Monteforte—AFP/Getty Images
gay pride month 2015 LGBT
Israelis and foreigners celebrate during the 17th annual gay pride parade in Tel Aviv on June 12, 2015.Menahem Kahana—AFP/Getty Images
gay pride parade 2015 LGBT
A reveler takes part in the "Proud to be yourself" gay pride parade with his dogs in Santiago on June 27, 2015. Vladimir Rodas—AFP/Getty Images
gay pride parade 2015 LGBT
A participant takes part in the annual Pride in London Parade on June 27, 2015 in London.Neil Hall—Reuters
gay pride parade 2015 LGBT
People take part in the annual Pride in London Parade on June 27, 2015 in London.Rob Stothard—Getty Images
gay pride parade 2015 LGBT
A man waves the Rainbow flag on a truck during the annual Gay Pride parade in central Sofia, Bulgaria on June 27, 2015.Nikolay Doychinov—AFP/Getty Images
gay pride parade 2015 LGBT
Revelers with skull masks take part in a Gay Pride parade in Panama City on June 27, 2015.Carlos Jasso—Reuters
gay pride parade 2015 LGBT
A participant in the Pride March against discrimination in Manila on June 27, 2015.Ritchie B. Tongo—EPA
gay pride parade 2015 LGBT
Participants march during a Gay Pride Parade in Mexico City on June 27, 2015.Edgard Garrido—Reuters
gay pride month 2015 LGBT
Participants of Sao Paulo's 19th annual Gay Pride Parade hold a large flag with the LGBT colors in Sao Paulo on June 7, 2015. Tiago Mazza Chiaravalloti—NurPhoto/Corbis
gay pride month 2015 LGBT
Participants of the 20th 'Regenbogenparade' (Rainbow Parade) wearing body paint march on the Ringstrasse in Vienna on June 20, 2015. Herbert P. Oczeret—EPA
gay pride month 2015 LGBT
Costumed people attend the Christopher Street Day, CSD, gay pride parade in front of the Semper Opera in Dresden, Germany on June 6, 2015. Jens Meyer—AP
gay pride parade 2015 LGBT
Keira Phair, of Westchester, Ohio, holds a rainbow flag during the Cincinnati Pride parade on June 27, 2015, in Cincinnati.John Minchillo—AP
gay pride month 2015 LGBT
Revelers run under a huge rainbow flag during a Gay Pride parade in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on June 21, 2015.Jose Luis Gonzalez—Reuters

We see it because of judges like Margaret Marshall, the former Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, who wrote the first decision legalizing same-sex marriage almost 12 years ago. A native of South Africa and a former anti-Apartheid activist, Marshall has said she had given no thought to the issue before the case came to her court — but she knew discrimination when she saw it.

We see it because of civil rights lawyers like Mary Bonauto, the legal architect of the marriage cases who argued that Massachusetts case and earlier this year stood before the Supreme Court seeking national recognition of those same rights in Obergefell, and because of her colleagues at Boston’s Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, who worked tirelessly for more than 30 years to fight government discrimination against LGBT Americans in areas like criminal prosecution, adoption, medical treatment, and marriage.

We see it because of people like Jim Obergefell — who married his husband John on the tarmac at the Baltimore airport in 2013. Months later, John lost his fight with ALS. Years later, Jim took his fight to be listed on John’s death certificate in their native Ohio all the way to the Supreme Court — and won.

In America, because of our Constitution, senseless discrimination – discrimination that demeans the worth of our neighbors and our coworkers and our family members – cannot survive when it is brought out of the darkness. It has never been easy for us to shine the light on such discrimination. But when we see it, when we stop looking away and finally acknowledge it, it is never long before we formally recognize what is compelled by our Constitution. We recognize what has always been there: equality and dignity under the law, for all Americans, no matter who they are.

When looking at this equal marriage decision, Chief Justice John Roberts asserts that the Constitution “had nothing to do with it.” He’s wrong. Our Constitution had everything to do with it — with the liberty of two adults to have their love treated the same as that of any other couple. And it is because of the tireless work of jurists, lawyers, husbands like Jim Obergefell, and countless other LGBT Americans who stepped forward to speak out, that our nation will no longer look away from what our Constitution requires.

More Must-Reads from TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com

TIME Ideas hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. We welcome outside contributions. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.