On Feb. 9, Alabama will become the 37th state in the nation to issue same-sex marriage licenses. I am happily shocked; that’s 12 to 13 places higher than I predicted it would be on that list. Of course, Alabama did not want this distinction to happen. As has happened in so many other marches towards progress, our state had to be dragged kicking, screaming and praying into the 21st century. While many people of my generation will celebrate this victory and think the battle for the Yellowhammer state is won, we should not be so naïve, nor so quick to hang up our boots and go home.
As you read this, our state leaders are busy brainstorming ways to institute new discriminatory roadblocks for LGBT Alabamians. Chief Justice Roy Moore, the highest judicial authority in the state, is currently advising probate judges that they are not bound by the Federal Court’s ruling to issue same-sex marriage licenses, despite the Bush-appointed judge who issued the ruling declaring last Wednesday that they are. He is not the only leader who will attempt to stand in yet another door and block progress.
There are still a number of anti-LGBT laws being debated in other heavily conservative statehouses that our legislators can and will try to import to Montgomery. They could try to do what some counties in Florida have done in response to their same-sex marriage ruling and end the practice of courthouse wedding ceremonies. They may fight, as other states have done, to enshrine into law the rights of businesses to refuse service to individuals based on sexual orientation or gender identity. They will continue to oppose laws that would outlaw employment discrimination against LGBT Alabamians. Don’t even get me started on the progress that needs to be made for transgender individuals.
Opponents of injustice and supporters of equality must be vigilant. We must all do our parts to be educated on issues surrounding LGBT discrimination, to lend support to our neighbors and to show true Southern hospitality to all. Progress may be made slowly in the heart of the South, but with our voices and our actions we can ensure that it will continue to be made.
The war is just beginning, and as Abraham Lincoln once said in the middle of war, “With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in… to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves.”
Leigh Terry is a junior majoring in economics. Her column runs biweekly.
