Letter: Benefits of marriage should be extended to same-sex couples

To the editor,

I recently saw a billboard near the I-494 bridge in South St. Paul that features a black bride and groom.  The billboard is one of several around the state that was paid for by Minnesota for Marriage, a group that wants to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

The great irony in this particular billboard is that until the end of the Civil War, blacks couldn’t legally marry in the old south. Instead, the bride and groom would go through an informal ceremony which included “jumping the broom.” The slave couple would lay down a broom, hold hands and literally jump over the broom stick.  In a legal system that prevented them from marrying, the couple used that simple ceremony to signify their “marriage.”  

Several years ago, I attended a wedding between a black man and a white woman in Atlanta, Ga.  As a remembrance of the groom’s slave ancestors, the couple “jumped the broom” after the minister had pronounced them man and wife.  It was very touching.  

By the way, until the late 1960s, there were many states where it was illegal for a white to marry a black. Times change, don’t they?  What was once illegal is now legal.  Race is no longer a barrier to marriage in the U.S.  

It’s time for society to once again extend the economic and social benefits of marriage to same-sex couples.  Vote “No” on the marriage amendment in November.

Mike Kluznik

Mendota Heights

(Editor’s note: The letter writer is a former Hastings resident and former teacher at Hastings High School.)

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