With the Supreme Court hearing cases on the Defense of Marriage Act, marriage equality is a sweeping topic on social media. One particular clip from an old episode of The Golden Girls is getting a lot of shares this morning for its simple and poignant defense of gay marriage.
The below clip, taken from the “ Sister of the Bride ” episode from 1991, Sophia (Estelle Getty) takes a way-ahead-0f-its-time stance on gay marriage. Blanche (Rue McClanahan) is upset that her brother is planning to marry his boyfriend, saying that she overall doesn’t mind him being gay, so long as he doesn’t announce it to the world with a wedding ring.
“Everyone wants someone to grow old with,” Sophia simply replies. “And shouldn’t everyone have that chance?”
The Supreme Court said that it is unlikely to issue a sweeping ruling on the constitutional right of same-sex couple to marry, but have been hearing arguments nonetheless in a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act , which only provides benefits to heterosexual married couples.
There are over 1,000 federal laws and programs that have rules or applications that are based in part on one’s marital status.
The fight for marriage equality has made some huge leaps in recent years, with legalization is several states and President Obama’s official endorsement of the issue. Two years ago, Attorney General Eric Holder notified Congress that President Obama concluded that “classifications based on sexual orientation” were not consistent with the Constitution, and the Justice Department stopped defending DOMA in court.
Now we are where we are today, but it’s interesting to see how far back the issue had support in popular culture. Here’s the clip from the Golden Girls we introduced. It’s short and sweet, so share away:
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