The API Struggle for Marriage Equality
1880s: In 1880, California enacted a law that prohibited marriage between a white person and "a Negro, mulatto, or Mongolian." The anti-miscegenation law was written to prevent interracial marriages between Chinese and white people. [1]
One of its early champions was San Franciscan and future U.S. Senator John F. Miller, who in 1878, declared, "Were the Chinese to amalgamate at all with our people...the result of that amalgamation would be "a mongrel of the most detestable that has ever afflicted the earth." [2]
1930s: In the early 1930s, an API man and a woman of European descent challenged California in Roldan v. Los Angeles County. A California Court ruled in their favor, but for racist reasons. The court ruled that California’s marriage law did not apply to Solvador Roldan because, as a Filipino, he was "Malay," not "Mongolian." [3]
Within a few months of the Roldan decision, the California Legislature amended the marriage law in order to nullify the Roldans’ marriage, making it clear that all marriages between API and whites would be found prohibited and void in California. [4]
1940s to 1960s: In 1948, the California Supreme Court finally ruled against anti-miscegenation laws in Perez v. Sharp, calling such laws "by their very nature, odious to a free people." However, it was only in 1967 did the U.S. Supreme Court rule in Loving v. Virginia against laws in 16 states prohibiting interracial marriages, abolishing anti-miscegenation statutes in the country for good.
1990s: In 1994, the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) became the first non-gay organization, after the American Civil Liberties Union, to support same-sex marriage. It endorsed a document known as the Marriage Resolution that affirmed marriage as a basic human right that should not be barred to same-sex couples. [5]
Later, at the JACL National Convention in August 1994, then U.S. Congressman Norman Mineta asked attendees to reject a resolution that would have withdrawn the organization’s support for marriage equality for same-sex couples. He recognized that "a threat to anybody’s civil right is a threat to the civil rights of all Americans." [6]
Japanese Americans, Al and Jane Nakatani, helped spearhead the 1998 campaign against a proposed anti-marriage amendment to the Hawaii state constitution. The amendment ultimately passed by a 2-to-1 margin.
2000 and beyond: On February 12, 2004, the marriage of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon was officiated by Chinese American Mabel Teng, Assessor for San Francisco. It was the first same-sex marriage performed in the city and county following Mayor Gavin Newsom’s decision to issue civil marriage licenses to lesbian and gay couples.
One of the two Superior Court judges who rejected the cases brought by anti-marriage opponents, Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund and Campaign for California Families, was Filipino American Ronald Quidachay.
On March 3, 2004, Mary Li and Rebecca Kennedy became the first same-sex couple to be married in Oregon. They became party to an ACLU lawsuit seeking to win marriage equality in their state.
On March 8, 2004, Indian Americans Mala Nagarajan and Vega Subramaniam became party to a lawsuit seeking to overturn Washington state's 1998 Defense of Marriage Act. Their lesbian Hindu wedding ceremony sparked a media firestorm in 2002.
Michelle "Monst*r" Esguerra and Boo Torres de Esguerra also became party to the lawsuit. They are Filipina and Chamorra, respectively, and are pictured above.
On March 12, 2004, Lancy Woo and Christy Chung became party to a lawsuit arguing that denying same-sex couples the right to marry violates the California Constitution's guarantees of equality, liberty, and privacy. Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis, an interracial API couple, later joined the lawsuit.
On February 4, 2005, New York State Supreme Court Doris Ling-Cohan struck down New York City’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples. In her ruling, she used the history of interracial marriages in America as a parallel to, and a justification for, same-sex marriages.
Today, APIs continue to play a leading role in the marriage equality movement. Many serve as plaintiffs, lawyers, justices, organizers, and allies in local, state, and national efforts to secure the freedom to marry.
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[1] "Family values" in San Francisco Chronicle (March 5, 2004)
[2] Ibid.
[3] "The Freedom to Marry" in Asianweek (November 26-27, 1997)
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] "JACL, Marriage and Civil Rights" in Nikkei Heritage (Vol. XIV, Number 3, Summer 2002).