[ComtedeMaistre]

>>I think in a decade or two people will look back on this as an historic time like we look back on the legalization of interracial marriage in 1967<<

Interracial marriage was legal in most Northern states before 1967. And the legalization of such marriages was brought about by state legislatures.

But such marriages were illegal in 16 Southern states. However, after the 1964 civil rights act, most Americans did not feel that such prohibitions on intermarriage served a legitimate purpose. This new national consensus on race that was reached in the 1960s, influenced the 1967 Loving V. Virginia Supreme Court ruling. Such a national consensus has not been reached with regard to gay relationships.

It may surprise you, that interracial marriages were legal in some parts of this country for centuries. Whites and Native Americans have been intermarrying since the time of Pocahanthus. The black abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, who lived in the nineteenth century, was legally interracially married, and he served for a time as an American diplomat in San Domingo. There are even legal (though rare) black/white marriages that took place in colonial America (before 1776).

Therefore, the concept of black/white marriage was not unheard of, before 1967. There were only regional restrictions on such relationships.

[Miles Vorkosigan]

Long John Silver in Treasure Island was married to a black woman, so I would assume that the idea wasn't considered particularly bizarre in 19th century England, at least.

[cupcakes]

Absolutely right and in addition interracial marriages have happened throughout history. The fact they were illegal for a time in some states was a matter of the poor morality of the time. Legalizing the unions was nothing new--interracial marriages have precedence in history and eventually the injustice of them being illegal was going to be overturned. Unlike interracial marriage, gay marriage has no precedence in history. I'm not sure I've ever heard of any civilization, even ones that tolerated and encouraged gay sex for pleasure and dominance like ancient Greece, who sanctioned gay marriages. They are unheard of.