Something to think about

Zombyboy of RessurectionSong ponders whether same sex marriage is a civil rights issue, or not. Before I get into my own commentary, I want to point out two things right up front:
1. Zombyboy says some very positive things, including this. "I think that America, and marriage, are both big enough to endure benefit from extending the privilege of marriage to the gay and lesbian community."
2. I know RessurectionSong is one of the BIG blogs, and I'm not trying to glean any hits from the site. He brought up some points that gave me the impetus to write.

Ok then. Zombyboy writes "In what way is it a civil rights violation to say that there are rules for entering into a specific kind of contract and if you do not meet those eligibility requirements you are being discriminated against?"

Well, lets see. Buying a house is a specific kind of contract. There was a time in America when certain people were ineligible to own property. That was modified into certain people being ineligible to own real property; as in real estate. That was modified again to be that certain people could only own real property in certain neighborhoods.
I've studied real estate law thoroughly. These people did not meet the recognized eligibility requirements due to their ethnic heritage. Nonetheless, they were discriminated against.
So here's the thorny problem. Some believe that homosexuality is a choice. No one says that ethnic heritage is a choice. Yet there was a space of nearly 100 years between the Emancipation Proclamation and the legal right for African Americans to buy property in any neighborhood. Do we really have to wait a century or more for this to be considered a civil rights issue?