Mass murderers marry while gay partners wait for equality
Editor:
Phyllis Lyon & Del Martin have been domestic partners since 1952. Together they have written critically acclaimed scholarly books, raised a daughter and paid off a mortgage. They are considered good “moms” and wonderful people by their family and all who know them well. A crowd cheered in February 2004 when they became the first same-sex couple to be granted a marriage license in California.
As a member of the Manson family, Susan Atkins held down Sharon Tate, eight months pregnant and pleading for the life of her unborn son, while her buddy Charles “Tex” Watson stabbed the actress fifteen times. Separate juries in what is probably the nation’s most liberal state voted unanimously to sentence everyone involved in the crimes to death. While their trips down death row were regrettably cut short, Atkins and Watson have both made it down the aisle since being imprisoned. Both are married now; Watson has four children conceived during conjugal visits.
The Supreme Court has twice upheld the rights of incarcerated murderers to marry, stating that “since the right to marry is of fundamental importance” (Zablocki v. Redhail, 1978) it cannot be denied to even the worst possible members of society. Despite this, the matrimonial sky has not fallen. There has been no decrease in marriages among the law abiding due in protest or fear of the rights of convicted murderers to marry. No sane person has felt compelled to enter into wedlock with an incarcerated felon just because it is legal. Decent people marry everyday who do not seem to consider their unions tainted by the fact that imprisoned killers are afforded the same legalities.
In August 2004, 35 years (almost to the day) after Susan Atkins drank Sharon Tate’s blood and debated whether to cut out her baby and deliver it as a trophy to Charles Manson, the state of California overturned Phyllis & Del’s marriage. The marriages of Atkins and Watson, two vicious mass murderers who have contributed nothing to society, remain permanently safe from any state imposed dissolution. There is no outcry of conservatives calling the marriages of Atkins and Watson a mockery or a sin or a threat to a “holy institution”. Evidently, to George W. Bush and his supporters, marriage is Manson-proof, but not queer-proof.
A straight person may not be able to understand how humiliating and frustrating it is to be told that they are less worthy of legal kinship with the person they love than are the perpetrators of the most terrifying crime in American history. They cannot understand how infuriating it is to be told that they are a threat to American society greater than the Manson
family, so much so that the Constitution itself requires the addition of the first amendment ever specifically designed to discriminate against law abiding American citizens.
I do understand this, and it is why I find in the opportunity to vote against George Bush the passion I lack in supporting John Kerry. I am not less deserving than a mass murder.
Jonathan Darby
Reference & Instruction Coordinator
GC&SU Library
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 29 2004. Filed under Opinion.
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