Liberais foram os primeiros na luta pelo casamento gay

Com a histórica decisão da Suprema Corte, boa parte dos americanos hoje apóia o casamento gay. Os liberais foram os primeiros. Até mesmo John Podesta, um dos principais assessores de Bill Clinton, Barack Obama e Hillary Clinton, e fundador do Center for American Progress, reconheceu em 2011 que quinze anos atrás, liberais eram praticamente os únicos a defender abertamente o casamento gay.

Apenas sete anos atrás, na campanha presidencial de 2008, Barack Obama, Joe Biden e Hillary Clinton, principais candidatos do Partido Democrata, eram contra o casamento gay. Já o Partido Libertário apoiava a causa desde seu primeiro programa, de 1972 – mesmo ano em que o candidato democrata à vice-presidência fez referência a “bichinhas” num discurso em Chicago. Em 1976, o Partido Libertário publicou um panfleto pedindo o fim de toda a legislação anti-gay e apoiando o direito integral ao casamento.

Não se trata de uma supresa: afinal, liberais acreditam na garantia de direitos individuais para todos e igualdade perante a lei. Por isso, eles reconheciam os direitos dos gays muito antes de socialistas, social-democratas e conversadores tomarem coragem para fazer o mesmo.

A Declaração de Independência garantiu o direito à vida, liberdade e busca da felicidade para todos os americanos. Claro, nem todos tiveram acessos a estes direitos num primeiro momento. Mas eventualmente as ideias presentes na raiz dos Estados Unidos levaram à abolição da escravidão e, posteriormente, ao reconhecimento dos direitos civis de negros e mulheres. Ainda mais tempo foi necessário para que as pessoas considerassem a sério que a atividade homossexual é assunto privado, onde deve prevalecer a liberdade pessoal e os direitos de gays e lésbicas.

Foram os liberais clássicos, ancestrais dos libertários modernos, os primeiros a reconhecerem este fato. De Montesquieu a Adam Smith no século 18 até o vencedor do Prêmio Nobel de economia F. A. Hayek, que ainda em 1960 (quando a sodomia era crime em todo os Estados Unidos) já afirmava que “práticas privadas entre adultos, mesmo quando tidas como horrendas pelo público geral, não devem sofrer qualquer interferência coerciva do Estado”.

Historians have often noted the general danger to minorities of a powerful and expansive government. In his book Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, the Yale historian John Boswell wrote that “gay people were actually safer under the [Roman] Republic, before the state had the authority or means to control aspects of the citizenry’s personal lives. Any government with the power, desire, and means to control such individual matters as religious belief may also regulate sexuality, and since gay people appear to be always a minority, the chance that their interests will carry great weight is relatively slight.” In Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America, John D’Emilio and Estelle Freedman noted that a growing commitment to freedom in 18th-century America brought about “an overall decline in state regulation of morality and a shift in concerns from private to public moral transgressions.”

Despite the broad influence of liberalism in the world, governments have continued to meddle in sexuality. As recently as the 1960s, homosexual relations were illegal in almost all states, and 13 states still had such laws on the books until the Supreme Court struck them down in 2003. When these laws were vigorously enforced, they drove gay people underground and created much misery. Gays and lesbians could not be open about their lives. If they were, they risked being fired, being thrown out of their homes, and even being beaten or killed. Once gay people stood up for their rights, social attitudes began to change and governments backed away from enforcing the laws. However, until the court ruling, sodomy laws were still used, for instance, to deny gay parents custody of their children.

Today, Libertarians believe, as John Stuart Mill famously wrote, that “over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.” That applies to gay people and to everyone else. Thus Libertarians continue to oppose laws criminalizing any consensual sexual activity among adults, in the United States and elsewhere.

Many Libertarians argue for the complete privatization of marriage, making marriage a matter of individual contract and — for those who want it — a religious ceremony, thus removing any need for state recognition of marriages. As long as marriage is licensed by government, however, same-sex couples are entitled to equal legal rights. The same rule applies to other government programs, from tax laws to Social Security to adoption. Libertarians would like to get government out of most areas, but as long as government is involved, it must treat citizens equally. The Supreme Court may be about to agree.

DAVID BOAZ is executive vice president of the Cato Institute and author of The Libertarian Mind,just published by Simon & Schuster.