RIP Mildred Loving

May 5, 2008 1:42 PM

Mildred Loving of Loving v. Virginia (1967) has passed away.
posted by Morrigan (51 comments total)

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posted by tachikaze at 1:44 PM on May 5 [2 favorites]

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posted by ALongDecember at 1:46 PM on May 5

And remember, all: Loving Day's on June 12th! Let's all get out there and miscegenate!
posted by Greg Nog at 1:46 PM on May 5 [1 favorite]

Is there another world like eponysterical, except that it means 'touching' and not 'funny'?
posted by empath at 1:52 PM on May 5

Shit.

My dad was a travel agent in the early 1960s, and part of his job was to go around and promote travel to Hawaii. My dad was Hawaiian (and dark-skinned), and my mom was not, and they decided that it was too risky for a brown man and a white woman to travel together when he had to travel in the South. On those trips, he went alone.

There is irony, or something, in the fact that their daughter (me) is a lesbian, whose partner is a native Virginian - her parents still live there. I quake a little with fear when we travel there, because Virginia says that all of the arrangements we've made - domestic partnership recognized in our home state of California, marriage recognized in Canada, various legal things giving each other rights - count for nothing if one of us gets hurt or hospitalized in Virginia. Whose marketing motto is "Virginia is for Lovers."

So thank you, Mildred, and Richard. We've got more work to do, and we're going to keep doing it.
posted by rtha at 1:53 PM on May 5 [21 favorites]

I'm so glad that there are people like Mildred Loving out there to fight for rights and for love. What saddens me is that 40 years later, our society is still having this same argument over gay marriage. Why do we keep making the same stupid mistakes over and over again?

So in Mrs Loving's honor, everyone go out there and love the person of your choice and keep on working for the day when government gets the hell out of our bedroom.
posted by afflatus at 1:54 PM on May 5 [3 favorites]

Whose marketing motto is "Virginia is for Lovers."

I thought it was "Virginia is for Snipers".
posted by kuujjuarapik at 1:59 PM on May 5 [2 favorites]

Is there another world like eponysterical, except that it means 'touching' and not 'funny'?
posted by empath at 1:52 PM on May 5 [+] [!]

Eponystouching?

(e-ponys touching?)
posted by basicchannel at 2:00 PM on May 5 [2 favorites]

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posted by dismas at 2:02 PM on May 5

I listened to the audio arguments in the case a couple of years back. The arguments against interracial marriage then sound remarkably like the arguments against gay marriage today, and just as bogus.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 2:03 PM on May 5 [1 favorite]

So in Mrs Loving's honor, everyone go out there and love the person of your choice and keep on working for the day when government gets the hell out of our bedroom.

Here, here!
posted by notjustfoxybrown at 2:04 PM on May 5

I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry.

God bless her.

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posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:04 PM on May 5

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posted by Stynxno at 2:05 PM on May 5

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posted by Avenger at 2:06 PM on May 5

This ruling made it possible for my wife's parents to get married, and, I suppose, for me to marry her. In an odd twist, though, we chose not to get married in DC, where the Lovings were married and where we live, because it was just too much damned trouble (for non-racist reasons). Instead, we drove across the river to, you guessed it, Virginia, where the process isn't mired in red tape. Sometimes it's easy to forget how much times have changed.
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:07 PM on May 5

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posted by brujita at 2:10 PM on May 5

As a native Virginian who can't get married in her home state, here's to change, and to someday looking back with the same level of astonishment that there were ever such laws making it illegal for people to get married.

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posted by gingerbeer at 2:10 PM on May 5

I love how all the 'protect marriage' laws are about preventing people from getting married, and not a single one makes it easier to get a divorce.

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posted by mullingitover at 2:20 PM on May 5 [2 favorites]

...and by 'easier' I mean 'more difficult.'
posted by mullingitover at 2:20 PM on May 5 [1 favorite]

I've been reading Stephen B. Oates' excellent Lincoln biography With Malice Toward None lately. I got to the Lincoln-Douglas debates yesterday and was really surprised. They're always held up in elementary school history class as a shining example of rhetoric and vigorous debate, but Douglas reads like a nineteenth century Rick Santorum. He raises the terrifying possibility that if the slaves were freed, next thing you knew your neighbors would be marrying them.

Plus ca change.
posted by EarBucket at 2:31 PM on May 5

Here's to Mildred Loving and all those who have the courage to stand up to the bigots to be with the person they love.
posted by scody at 2:32 PM on May 5

Thanks, Mildred, from a mixed-race couple. God bless you.
posted by optovox at 2:34 PM on May 5

Thanks Mildred! Many of my friends and coworkers would not be happily married now if it weren't for your bravery.

mullingitover : I love how all the 'protect marriage' laws are about preventing people from getting married, and not a single one makes it more difficult to get a divorce.

I've often wondered about that myself. It's one of those hypocrisies, where you have someone loudly advocating against gay or interracial marriage or other thing which might diminish the eternal bond shared in the eyes of God between two people (or whatever), and you find out the person has been divorced three or four times. You just desperately want to ask: "So, when you say, 'protecting the sanctity of marriage' you mean, from people like you, right?"

Of course, that would require the press to actually be aggressive in their pursuit of truth. Not just big headlines.
posted by quin at 2:39 PM on May 5 [1 favorite]

♥
posted by granted at 2:49 PM on May 5 [3 favorites]

I got to the Lincoln-Douglas debates yesterday and was really surprised. They're always held up in elementary school history class as a shining example of rhetoric and vigorous debate, but Douglas reads like a nineteenth century Rick Santorum.

Yeah, Douglas is totally disengenous in the debates. It was a shock when I read them too.

Anyway, for Ms. Loving, .
posted by Ironmouth at 2:50 PM on May 5

It is thanks to Loving v Virginia that my wife and I were able to marry. Thanks Mildred.

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posted by sotonohito at 2:51 PM on May 5

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Astonishingly, a lot of people aren't even aware of the word "miscegenation" or that interracial marriage was a crime. We've come a long way and have a long way to go.
posted by desuetude at 2:52 PM on May 5 [2 favorites]

They've tried to make it harder for folks to get divorced. Weirdly enough, people don't seem to be flocking to this option. Go figure.

And much love, Mildred.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:53 PM on May 5

I've often wondered about that myself. It's one of those hypocrisies, where you have someone loudly advocating against gay or interracial marriage or other thing which might diminish the eternal bond shared in the eyes of God between two people (or whatever), and you find out the person has been divorced three or four times.

Especially because, unlike with homosexuality, Jesus actually cared enough about divorce to make his opinion known.
posted by granted at 2:55 PM on May 5 [1 favorite]

someday looking back with the same level of astonishment that there were ever such laws making it illegal for people to get married.

Sorry, I couldn't wait: I'm looking right now at such laws with utter bewilderment.

RIP Mrs. Loving. We've still got a lot of fighting left to do, but thank you so much for your and your husband's bravery.
posted by lord_wolf at 3:09 PM on May 5

.. <-
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 3:16 PM on May 5

Damnit, didn't know metafilter stripped font color tags.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 3:16 PM on May 5

We've still got a lot of fighting left to do, but thank you so much for your and your husband's bravery.

Indeed. We cannot rest until our right to polygamous marriage is recognized and respected.
posted by Krrrlson at 3:18 PM on May 5 [2 favorites]

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posted by hydropsyche at 3:20 PM on May 5

Sadly, I only know about her from the movie, Mr. and Mrs. Loving.
posted by 445supermag at 3:26 PM on May 5

We cannot rest until our right to polygamous marriage is recognized and respected.

And dogs and kleptomaniacs! Santorum über alles!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:37 PM on May 5

So to speak...
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:40 PM on May 5

But I don't want Santorum all over everything.

What amazed me the most was finding out how recent this case was. I had a vague idea that miscegenation had used to be illegal, but I filed it away as something that happened a long time ago. Thanks for the post.
posted by nebulawindphone at 3:52 PM on May 5

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posted by CitizenD at 3:57 PM on May 5

Loving v. Virginia is probably one of the most important U.S. civil rights cases that nobody has ever heard about.

What amazes me most of all is that two states, Maryland and Virginia, had anti-miscegenation laws on the books dating from the 1690s. Thanks to the Lovings, my wife and I can happly miscegenate here in Maryland. I can only hope that an equivalent case for gays and lesbians will come soon.
posted by thewittyname at 4:17 PM on May 5

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posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 4:37 PM on May 5

Best. Casename. Evarrrr.
posted by zekinskia at 4:54 PM on May 5 [2 favorites]

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posted by rmd1023 at 5:47 PM on May 5

i wouldn't be here for her and neither would my kids.
two generations of miscegenated love.
melanin, not optional.

thanks ms. loving and say hi to your guy for me.
posted by liza at 6:07 PM on May 5

It really does seem like the logic of Loving should be applicable to laws forbidding same-sex marriage. The court was quite clear that anti-miscegenation laws that equally burden the rights of blacks and whites still violate equal protection.

The obvious analogy is that even though laws allowing only opposite-sex marriage equally burden men and women, this apparently shouldn't be seen as avoiding the equal protection problem. Gender and racial classifications are subject to different levels of scrutiny, and this could result in differing outcomes, but the underlying argument seems sound.

Of course, we'd know the answer, except Kennedy punted on the equal protection analysis in Lawrence.
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 7:21 PM on May 5

The wikipedia article on the etymology and history of miscegenation is pretty darn interesting as well:

The word was coined in an anonymous propaganda pamphlet printed in New York City in December 1863, entitled Miscegenation: The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro. The pamphlet purported to be in favor of promoting the intermarriage of whites and blacks until they were indistinguishably mixed, claiming this was the goal of the Republican Party. The pamphlet was revealed to be a hoax written by Democrats David Goodman Croly, managing editor of the New York World, a Democratic Party paper, and George Wakeman, a World reporter. (New York City at the time was a place where people often criticized the ongoing American Civil War, to the point of rioting against that war in a massive brawl that had racial overtones.)

It wasn't just a southern thing.
posted by jenkinsEar at 7:51 PM on May 5

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posted by Pope Guilty at 9:18 PM on May 5

I've never seen a couple with a more apt surname. RIP.
posted by punchdrunkhistory at 9:20 PM on May 5

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posted by Smart Dalek at 3:50 AM on May 6

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posted by eckeric at 9:04 AM on May 6

I was impressed with this and the marriage of Frederick Douglas.
posted by doctorschlock at 9:06 AM on May 6