by Jason Stotts
(Originally Published 10/15/09)
The Associated Press is reporting (article) that an interracial couple has been denied a marriage license in Louisiana. No, not in the 1940’s, this very year!
NEW ORLEANS – A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. (emphasis mine)
“I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way,” Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday.
So, this particular Justice of the Peace has decided, in his infinite wisdom, that since he thinks that interracial marriages do not last and he states elsewhere that he thinks the children of these couples have a harder time, that he will not marry any interracial couples. He contends that “he’s not a racist,” he only doesn’t believe in “mixing the races that way.”
If Bardwell (the Justice in question) is right that these marriages do not fare well, then it is only because of the hatred that he helps to perpetuate! What makes him think that he has the right, in his capacity as a Justice of Peace, to arbitrarily choose who he will marry and who he won’t? If the couple in question fulfills the legal requirements, then it is Bardwell’s duty to marry them. If he does not, for whatever reason, then he has abdicated his duty and should be minimally removed from office, if not tried for discrimination.
To think that love can only happen between people of the same race is foolish. Love is about certain attributes that one finds in another person; the fact that skin comes in different colors is irrelevant.
—UPDATE—
As of today (10/16) CNN is reporting that the Governor of Louisiana is calling for Bardwell’s firing.
—UPDATE—
As of 11/03, the NY Times is reporting that Justice Bardwell has resigned and is facing a civil suit by the couple he denied the marriage license to.