Rejecting the fundamental provision of the Civil Rights Act is a rejection of the foundational promise of America that all men and women should be treated equally, a promise for which many Americans have lost their lives.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It is difficult to overstate the importance of the Civil Rights Act.
Civil rights was not an impossible dream. Thousands of brave African Americans stepped forward to make it happen.
Civil marriage, like all civil rights provided by the government, must be provided equally to all Americans.
The civil rights movement in the United States was about the same thing, about equality of treatment for all sections of the people, and that is precisely what our movement was about.
A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.
The very purpose of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution is to protect minority rights against majority voters. Every court decision that strikes down discriminatory legislation, including past Supreme Court decisions, affirming the fundamental rights to marry the person you love, overrules a majority decision.
To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.
I should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, you begin making exceptions to it, where will you stop? If one man says it does not mean a Negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man?
I think there are a whole host of things that are civil rights, and then there are other things - such as traditional marriage - that, I think, express a community's concern and regard for a particular institution.
Civil rights is unfinished business. Make it your business.