Loving Day

 Today is Loving Day in the United States.

(Mildred and Richard Loving in 1967.)

It is a non-Federally Recognized Celebration of Interracial Marriage in the United States when on June 12, 1967 the US Supreme Court struck down Anti-Miscegenation Laws that banned Interracial Relationships and Marriage.

Alaska, Hawaii, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire never had Anti-Miscegenation Laws.

Illinois (1874), Iowa (1851), Kansas (1859), Maine (1883), Massachusetts (1843), Michigan (1883), New Mexico (1866), Ohio (1887), Pennsylvania (1780), Rhode Island (1881) and Washington State (1868) had Anti-Miscegenation Laws, but repealed them before 1887.

Arizonia (1962), California (1948), Colorado (1957), Idaho (1959), Indiana (1965), Maryland (1967), Montana (1953), Nebraska (1963), Nevada (1959), North Dakota (1955), Oregon (1951), South Dakota (1957), Utah (1963) and Wyoming (1965) had Anti-Miscegenation Laws, but repealed them before the Supreme Court’s Loving Decision.

Alabama (2000), Arkansas (1973), Delaware (1986), Florida (1969), Georgia (1972), Kentucky (1974), Louisiana (1975), Mississippi (1987), Missouri (1969), North Carolina (1973), Oklahoma (1969), South Carolina (1998), Tennessee (1978), Texas (1969), Virginia (1968) and West Virginia (1969) all had Anti-Miscegenation Laws that were overturned by the Supreme Court’s Loving Decision in 1967, but many Laws remained officially on the Books until the dates above.

U.S. Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia (1967) was brought by Mildred Delores Loving (née Jeter; July 22, 1939 – May 2, 2008) and her Husband Richard Perry Loving (October 29, 1933 – June 29, 1975.)

Mildred was Cherokee, Portuguese and African Descent and Richard was White.

The Jim Crow Laws of Virginia (and the rest of the South) which used the “One Drop Rule” (that any person with any Black Ancestry no matter how far back was considered Black, etc.) as well as Virginia’s Anti-Miscegenation Law forbidding Interracial Relationships and Marriage made the Lovings’ Relationship a Crime.

In June 1958, while living in Virginia, they went to Washington, DC to get married. They returned that night to their Virginian home where they were arrested by the Sheriff, who had received an anonymous tip, and charged with "cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth."

They pled guilty and were convicted by the Caroline County Circuit Court on January 6, 1959. They were sentenced to one year in Prison, suspended for 25 years on the condition that they leave Virginia. They moved to Washington, D.C.

In 1964, after their Son was hit by a car they decided to move back to Virginia and so worked with the ACLU to have their sentence removed.  After the Supreme Court voted in favor of the Lovings they moved back to Virginia.

With the exception of a 2007 Statement supporting Homosexual Rights, Mildred Loving remained out-of-the spotlight after 1967.

In 2013, the Loving Case was cited as Precedent in US Federal Court decisions holding that restrictions on Same-Sex Marriage was unconstitutional.

The US Supreme Court agreed (in Obergefell v. Hodges) and Same-Sex Marriage has been legal in the United States (with the exception of some Indian Reservations and the US territory of American Samoa) since 2015.

Some people may think: why should I care about all of this? Interracial Relationships, Interracial Marriage, Homosexual Relationships and Homosexual Marriage is legal in the US.

You should care because there are people (Politicians, Supreme Court Justices, So-Called Religious Groups and many others) who are actively trying to attack (with words and, in my many cases, violence) Gays and those in Interracial Relationships.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (who himself is in an Interracial Marriage since he is Black and his 2^nd Wife is White) suggested that States look at making Same-Sex Marriage illegal at the State Level so it can then go before the Supreme Court and be upheld as illegal.

Doing that means that Interracial Marriage could also be overturned since the same arguments for Interracial Relationships and Marriage and Same-Sex Relationships and Marriage are so closely related.

Bottom Line: On Loving Day do what the name says: Love.

If you don’t agree with Interracial Relationships and Marriage then don’t date or marry someone out of your Race, but don’t stop others from doing so.

If you don’t agree with Same-Sex Relationships and Marriage then don’t date or marry someone in your Gender, but don’t stop others from doing so.

People are trying to deflect attention from the real issues and problems across the United States by aiming focus on Scapegoats (like the Homosexuals.) Don’t fall into the same kind of bigotry.