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Marriage, including same-sex marriage
Couples who are/were not permitted to marry
Sponsored link.
Some criteria:
In various societies, in various eras, marriages are or were forbidden if the couple
were:
 | from different tribes, |
| from the same tribe |
| of different races |
| of a particular race |
| of different religions |
| infertile |
| disabled |
| developmentally handicapped |
| of the same sex |
| of different status (e.g. slave and free) |
| of different castes |
| of different socio-economic classes |
| too closely related |
| etc. |
Some examples:
| Roman Empire: A slave was prohibited from marrying a free person. The early
Christian church was persecuted, in part, because of their refusal to obey this law. |
| U.S. slavery: In the 19th century before slavery was outlawed
in the U.S., marriages between slaves were
not recognized by some U.S. states. The Louisiana Slave Code of 1824
stated: |
"Slaves cannot marry without the consent of their masters, and their
marriages do not produce any of the civil effects which result from such
contract." 1
A North Carolina judge wrote in 1858 that:
"...the relation between slaves is essentially different from that of
man and wife joined in lawful wedlock."
1
According to Rev. K. Scott Kirk of the United Church of Christ:
"Eventually, white ministers began to conduct church weddings for
slaves. Historian John Blassingame notes that from 1841 to 1860, half of
the marriages in South Carolina’s Episcopal churches were slave
marriages. These ministers wanted to see slaves '...united under the
laws of God, even if their marriages were not recognized by the laws of
man'." 2,3
| U.S. interracial marriage: Also in the US, miscegenation laws that restricted
marriages on the basis of race were enforced in many states starting with
Maryland in the 1660s. By the early 1960's at least 41 states had enacted
such
statutes at one time. 4 By 1967, 16 states still had
anti-miscegenation laws in effect. In 1959, Richard and Mildred Loving -- an
inter-racial married couple who had been married in the District of Columbia
a few weeks before -- were arrested in Virginia. They pleaded guilty to a felony and were
not permitted to be together in the state for 25 years |
The judge ruled:
" Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he
placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement
there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races show that
he did not intend for the races to mix."
They couple appealed their case to the US Supreme Court, who In 1967, unanimously overturned the Virginia law and
annulled similar miscegenation laws of 15 other states.
5 Persons of different races have been able to marry throughout the US ever since.
More detailed information.
| Roman Catholic Church: In 1996, the church forbade a church marriage because the husband-to-be
was a paraplegic, and thus presumably could not engage in sexual activity
and consummate the marriage. The couple was
free to be married outside of their faith. This restriction still surfaces
from time to time. |
| Predominately Muslim countries: In most countries with Muslim majorities, a Muslim woman may not
marry a man who is not of the same faith. This has produced some
interesting results. During the late 1990s, a university professor in
Egypt who considers himself to be a Muslim, wrote a book suggesting
that Islam was in need of a reformation. Religious courts determined
that he was no longer a Muslim and ordered him and his wife to
divorce. They left the country instead. |
On the other hand...
| Ancient Egypt: A tomb of a same sex gay married couple Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep was discovered in 1964 in the
necropolis of Saqqara, Egypt. The tomb dates to the Fifth Dynasty (circa 2,500 BCE), and
shows that homosexual marriages date back over 4 millennia! |
| Roman Catholic Church: A recent book by Yale Historian John Boswell demonstrates that Roman Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox churches both sanctioned and sanctified unions between partners of the
same sex, until modern times. The churches used ceremonies which were very similar to
conventional heterosexual ceremonies. 6 |
| Other countries: Same-sex, long-term relationships have been publicly acknowledged in ancient Egypt,
Greece and Rome, as well as Australia, Europe, India, Native America in more modern times.
7 However, they have not necessarily been called marriages. |
References used:The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
- Stanley M. Elkins, "Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and
Intellectual Life," University of Chicago Press, (1976).
Read
reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
- Cited in Paul Finkelman, Ed., "Women and the Family in a Slave Society,"
Garland Science, (1990).
Amazon.com online book store
lists this book as currently unavilable (as of 2007-JUL)
- Rev. K. Scott Kirk, "It's about commitment," United Church of Christ,
1998-DEC, at:
http://www.ucc.org/
- "Lewis et al., v. Harris, et al. Superior Court of New Jersey: Brief of
plaintiffs in opposition to defendant's motion to dismiss," 2003-MAY-8,
at:
http://www.lambdalegal.org/
- The text of Loving v. Virginia is at: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/
- John Boswell, "Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe",
Villard, New York,
NY, (1994) Read
reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
- Paul Halsall, "Lesbian and Gay Marriage through History and Culture,"
at: http://www.bway.net/~halsall/lgbh/lgbh-marriage.html
Related list:
Copyright 1997 to 2008 by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2008-MAY-07
Author: B.A. Robinson
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