www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/8712253.htm
Posted on Thu, May. 20, 2004
BY ZEV CHAFETS
New York Daily News
(KRT) - The first legal homosexual marriages in Massachusetts took place on the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that ended school segregation. This coincidence did not, of course, go unnoticed by commentators who bundled them up in a symbolic package - two great civil rights victories with the same birthday.
The decision to integrate the schools was controversial in 1954. Today, it is universally lauded, a fact that proponents of gay marriage find encouraging. But Brown v. Board of Education can be taken as a promising precedent by opponents of gay marriage, too. After all, it didn't really change much.
By 1954, most Americans could easily see the gross inequality of school segregation. It became politically correct (especially in Northern cities) to favor school integration. Some whites actually meant it. More pretended. In fact, they had no intention of allowing their own children to be educated alongside blacks.