It is happening again. Those who remember the tumultuous weeks and months after the Goodridge decision in Massachusetts will know exactly what I mean by "1913 law". Our homophobic governor, Mitt Romney decided to suddenly start enforcing an obscure law that had been forgotten for decades and was likely passed to limit interacial marriage. That law prohibits out-of-state couples from marrying in MA when it is illegal for them to do so in their own states. Bigots in the MA legislature could not ban interracial marriage here, so they blocked desperate couples from less tolerant states from doing so.
Now a similarly obscure law from 1915 is being invoked in WI to threaten loving same-sex couples with huge fines and jail time just for getting married out of state.
Fair Wisconsin has sent out an email to over 10,000 supporters warning that same-sex couples could face $10,000 fines and up to nine months in jail for going to CA to get married. Watch this heartbreaking video from CNN to see one couple talk about what it is like to be forced to choose between "prosecution or persecution."
Why would Wisconsin pass a law in 1915 that enacted such stiff penalties against couples that married out of state? While I am not a legal historian, I can offer a clue. Wisconsin was not alone in passing legislation that severely limited the freedom of individuals to marry at that time. Anti-miscegenation laws were sweeping the nation:
In December 1912 and January 1913, Representative Seaborn Roddenbery (Democrat of Georgia) again introduced a proposal in the United States House of Representatives to insert a prohibition of miscegenation into the US Constitution and thus create a nation-wide ban on interracial marriage. According to the wording of the proposed amendment, "Intermarriage between negros or persons of color and Caucasians... within the United States... is forever prohibited." Roddenbery's proposal was more severe because it defined the racial boundary between whites and "persons of color" by applying the one-drop rule. In his proposed amendment, anyone with "any trace of African or Negro blood" was banned from marrying a white spouse.
Roddenbery's proposed amendment was also a direct reaction to African American heavyweight champion Jack Johnson's marriages to white women, first to Etta Duryea and then to Lucille Cameron. In 1908, Johnson had become the first black boxing world champion, having beaten Tommy Burns. After his victory, the search was on for a white boxer, a "Great White Hope", to beat Johnson. Those hopes were dashed in 1912, when Johnson beat former world champion Jim Jeffries. This victory ignited race riots all over America as frustrated whites attacked celebrating African Americans [Rust and Rust, 1985, p.147]. Johnson's marriages to and affairs with white women further infuriated white Americans.
...
Spurred on by Roddenbery's introduction of the anti-miscegenation amendment, politicians in many of the 19 states lacking anti-miscegenation laws proposed their enactment. However, Wyoming in 1913 was the only state lacking such a law that enacted one.[citation needed] Also in 1913, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which had abolished its anti-miscegenation law in 1843, enacted a measure that prevented couples who could not marry in their home state from marrying in Massachusetts.
Wisconsin never succeeded in passing anti-miscegenation statutes, though many bigots in the legislature certainly tried. The 1915 law that is being used as a threat against gay couples was passed in a general atmosphere of fear and racial hatred that the United States should remember with shame. Instead, many Americans seem to want to return to those time, fanning the flames of bigotry and homophobia for political purposes.
Please donate to Fair Wisconsin or Lambda Legal as much time or money as you can give. If we all stand together, we can sandbag this flood of hatred. If you live in WI, please call your representatives in the state and national legislature; these injustices cannot be allowed to continue in the 21st century.