The Logic of Equality

In the final day of their session two weeks ago, the US Supreme Court made a groundbreaking decision for gay rights in the US. It struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as unconstitutional, stating that by denying federal benefits to gay and lesbian couples who had been legally married in their own states, it created an unequal class of citizens. This was by no means a blanket victory for the LGBT community; same-sex marriage is still only legal in 12 states and the District of Columbia, and many states still explicitly ban even civil unions. However, it comes as the latest in a succession of landmarks favoring equal rights (for example, the repealing of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, which forbid gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, and Obama’s demand for full equality in his most recent inaugural address), and we must recognize it as a step forward.

I must say that by living over here, I’m happy to have removed myself from hearing the religious and often bigoted outcries from politicians when issues like this come up. The arguments against gay rights in the US are, of course, primarily driven by the religious (and largely Christian) right, which has a much bigger presence in American politics than it does in much of the rest of the western world and particularly more than in a largely atheist country like the Czech Republic. In describing the differences between the Czech and American political systems, the position of religion and the fact that the right is perhaps more a social than an economic designation are the main distinguishing factors that I point to. Why do young, educated, urban Czechs vote for the right, while the same group in America votes for the left? That’s why.

I’ve occasionally encountered homophobia in the Czech Republic, but never does that homophobia come with intolerance. The “live and let live” attitude reigns supreme. Politicians – regardless of what else they may get up to – never come out with the kind of intolerant statements that no American was surprised to hear from people like the Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner (“I am obviously disappointed in the ruling . . . it is my hope that states will continue to define marriage as the union between one man and one woman”) or Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (“What the Court has done will undermine the best interest of children and the best interests of the United States”). In fact, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s remark probably best characterizes what the Czech nation would have to say to people like Bachmann: “Who cares?”

That isn’t to say that gays and lesbians have completely equal rights here either. The Czech Republic became the first former Eastern Bloc country to recognize same-sex civil unions in 2006, but that has still not been expanded to include marriage rights, and the issue isn’t exactly at the forefront of political debate. I can’t imagine, however, that it would be a difficult bill to get through. Who would oppose it? The justice who cast the deciding vote in the DOMA decision was Anthony Kennedy, a center-right Ronald Reagan appointee who frequently breaks the tie in a court that is otherwise split along ideological lines, with four conservative and four liberal justices. His phrasing in the decision was, above all, logical – the Constitution protects equal rights for all citizens. DOMA creates a second class of married citizens by denying them federal rights. Therefore, DOMA is unconstitutional.

From what I’ve seen, logic plays a much bigger role in the workings of the Czech Republic than religion, which remains in the private sphere. There are no debates about the availability of abortions or contraception, no one would ever consider teaching children anything besides evolution, anyone suggesting prayer in schools would likely be at best ignored and at worst laughed at. The DOMA decision simply makes sense, and it would have made sense to go even farther by taking a stronger stance and mandating that gay marriage be legal throughout the country. Maybe that helps to explain why what was such a landmark victory for us barely earned a mention in the Czech news – it’s simply hard to grasp how big of a step it is when you’re not intimately familiar with the American political climate.

For now, I can celebrate that my gay and lesbian friends and family have the same rights as I do when it comes to marrying foreigners with the option of legally bringing them back to the States. I can be thankful that my country took a step forward instead of a step backward. And finally, I can hope that the forces that came into play here – logic, fairness, and a recognition of the need for equality – will continue to grow in both importance and visibility against their antitheses.