#rights

But gay marriage is coming to America first and foremost because marriage here is a secular concern, not a religious one. The objection to gay marriage is almost invariably biblical, but nobody's legal vows in this country are defined by interpretation of biblical verse - or at least, not since the Supreme Court stood up for Richard and Mildred Loving. A church wedding ceremony is a nice thing, but it is neither required for legal marriage in America nor does it constitute legal marriage in America. What constitutes legal marriage in this country is that critical piece of paper that you and your betrothed must sign and then register with the state. The morality of your marriage may indeed rest between you and God, but it's that civic and secular paperwork which makes your vows official here on earth. Ultimately, then, it is the business of America's courts, not America's churches, to decide the rules of matrimonial law, and it is in those courts that the same-sex marriage debate will finally be settled. ↗

— Elizabeth Gilbert

#gay-rights #marriage #same-sex-marriage #business

For years, I declined to fill in the form for my Senate press credential that asked me to state my 'race,' unless I was permitted to put 'human.' The form had to be completed under penalty of perjury, so I could not in conscience put 'white,' which is not even a color let alone a 'race,' and I sternly declined to put 'Caucasian,' which is an exploded term from a discredited ethnology. Surely the essential and unarguable core of King's campaign was the insistence that pigmentation was a false measure: a false measure of mankind (yes, mankind) and an inheritance from a time of great ignorance and stupidity and cruelty, when one drop of blood could make you 'black. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#civil-rights-movement #ethnology #identity-politics #martin-luther-king-jr #perjury

Humanity's true moral test, its fundamental test…consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. ↗

— Milan Kundera

#animal-rights #animal-welfare #animals #attitude

No matter whether it's someone from the political left or right, we just need a voice to stand up and defend animal rights. ↗

— Brigitte Bardot

#animal rights #defend #just #left #matter

Taxpayers should not be coerced into giving up their privacy rights just to file their taxes. ↗

— Melissa Bean

#file #giving #giving up #into #just

During the 60's, I was, in fact, very concerned about the civil rights movement. ↗

— Joe Biden

#civil #civil rights #civil rights movement #concerned #during

House was the first film where I had no influence on the script. I had to buy the script with the game rights. ↗

— Uwe Boll

#film #first #game #had #house

It may be an extreme example brought about by abnormal circumstances - but the criteria of human rights kick in, surely, precisely when the conditions are extreme and the situation is abnormal. ↗

— Breyten Breytenbach

#about #brought #circumstances #conditions #criteria

I contend the state ought to do its thing and provide legal rights for all couples who want to be joined together for life. The church should bless unions that it sees fit to bless, and they should be called marriages. ↗

— Tony Campolo

#called #church #contend #couples #fit

As corollaries to the right of every individual to life and to full participation in society, the Declaration incorporated in the list of human rights the right to work and a certain number of economic, social, and cultural rights. ↗

— Rene Cassin

#cultural #declaration #economic #every #full