DEARBORN — The Supreme Court has dubbed marriage a fundamental constitutional right that states cannot deny to gays and lesbians. Same-sex marriage has been a contentious issue on the national agenda for decades. 

Despite the conservative leanings of the Arab American community and the floods of anti-gay comments that followed the Supreme Court’s decision, a deeper look into Arab America reveals that Arab Americans are divided on this topic, like everybody else.

John, an engineer who wished to be identified by his first name only, said as an Arab American Christian, he finds the legalization of same-sex marriage “shameful and disgraceful.”

“It is basic common sense,” John, who lives in Washington D.C., added. “Gay marriage is a sin against God. It is clearly written in the Bible. Rejecting gay marriage should be the standard opinion in society, but unfortunately, people are misguided.”

John said he is a firm believer in the separation of church and state, but his rejection of gay marriage stems from his respect for public decency, not religion. 

“Whatever you do at your house is your own business,” he said. “Homosexuality has been around for thousands of years, but to have it paraded in the streets and blessed by the government is an insult.”

John said there are no similarities between Arab Americans’ and gays’ civil rights struggles.

“Our situation as Arab Americans is drastically different than gay Americans,” he said. “It is a flawed analogy. We are an ethnic group. We are not doing anything shameful. Demanding equality requires decency.” 

Grand Ayatollah Abdul Latif Berry, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Institute of Knowledge, said the Arab American community rejects the legalization of gay marriage.

“All Abrahamic religions prohibit such relations,” he said. “The reaction of the community— Muslims and Christians— was to condemn the Supreme Court’s decision.”

Berry said the Islamic religious texts are unambiguous in forbidding homosexual relations, adding that gay marriage endangers family values.

“The family is the cornerstone of society and the pillar that holds our nation,” he said. “If we allow gay marriage, we start destroying the family, which threatens the fabric of our society and allows the spread of corruption. This has a negative impact on the future of our country.”

Berry added that gay marriage undermines the importance of reproduction in society. “Humanity can only survive through the family,” he said.

The grand ayatollah said homosexuality could be caused by a biological or psychological issues, and gay people should seek treatment. 

However, all major psychological health organizations agree that homosexuality is not a disorder.

According to the American Psychological Association, “same-sex sexual and romantic attractions, feelings and behaviors are normal and positive variations of human sexuality.”

The leader of a known community organization, who wished for his name not to be published, described the Supreme Court’s decision as “bad news.”

“Nothing good could come out of this for our country and our community,” he said. “Our family values are under fire.”

Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi, of the Islamic House of Wisdom, said Islam and Christianity reject gay marriage.

“It is not about hating individuals,” he said. “We don’t hate anybody. But it is about disagreement with the actions.”

He said it is “amazing” that the general attitude about homosexuality has changed drastically over the past few decades. 

“In 1974, homosexuality was considered a mental disease,” he said. “Now it became so normal. Family is the oldest institution in human history. Now, the purpose of the establishment of the family, which is having children, is changing. What is the purpose of marriage now?”

Rasha Almulaiki, a Yemeni American activist and a co-founder of the feminist group The Z Collective, said the Supreme Court decision will start a needed conversation in the Arab community about gender identity and sexual orientation.

“Speaking about homosexuality in general has been a taboo, let alone discussing it in terms of our community,” she said. “LGBT rights being negotiated so explicitly and with such political and social legitimacy will work to slowly shift the traditional mindsets toward a more open perspective.”

Almulaiki said intolerance harms family values, not gay marriage. She explained that some Arab parents disown their gay children, which breaks up the family.

“The only thing keeping us apart is our own fear and ignorance,” she added.

Almulaiki said homosexuality has existed in the Middle East for thousands of years, but some people in the community portray it as a Western invention.

“It still surprises me how many myths still circulate about LGBT culture and identity,” she said. 

Almulaiki added that progressive interpretations of religious texts gave her an opportunity to reexamine the prevailing Arab cultural attitude about sexual orientation.

“Things are ever evolving, and we need to always be willing to at least investigate new information with an open-mind,” she said.

Rana Elmir, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, said the Arab American community should advocate for the equal rights and inclusion, not intolerance. 

“Promoting and celebrating the equal rights of the gay community inches our country closer to the promise of the pursuit of happiness, liberty and justice for all,” she said. “But we also recognize that the work is not done.”

Elmir said gay Arab Americans face anti-Arab and homophobic sentiments from within their own communities.

“I think we can agree that all hardworking people should have a fair chance to earn a living and provide for themselves and their families without fear of being fired, detained, evicted, targeted by the government or killed for who they are or whom they love,” she said.

Palestinian American comedian and activist Amer Zahr said marriage is a social institution, based on personal decisions, and it should not be the government’s business to determine who can marry whom.

Zahr said the Arab and LGBT communities are similar. 

“Both are minority groups struggling to be recognized as human beings,” he said. “The only two groups left in America you can say anything about publicly without a social price are Arab Americans and gay Americans. The same fight for humanization exists among us and them.”

Zahr said it is “hypocritical” of Arab Americans to fight discrimination against themselves, but be silent about or in opposition to gay rights.

He added that both communities intersect because the Arab community has its own gay community, although more LGBT Arab Americans are closeted. 

“Every Arab American has gay relatives,” he said. “We have just as many gays as anybody else. When you stand against gay people, you are standing against the rights of people who are very close to you. I wish that we lived in an environment where gays could be more vocal and visible. As Arab Americans, we haven’t matured to a point where our gay brothers and sisters feel that they can be open and accepted.”

Arab American LGBT individuals were overjoyed with the Supreme Court decision, like the rest of the gay community throughout the country.

Dozens of local Arab social media users, gays and supporters of LGBT rights, shaded their profile pictures on Facebook with the gay pride rainbow flag.

Alaa, a gay Lebanese American, who chose to be identified by his first name only, said the court decision gives him tremendous happiness.

“It means we are no longer unable to marry those who we consciously choose to build our lives and families with,” he said. “It means that now we are treated like our fellow heterosexual individuals and not as second class citizens.”

Alaa added that the court’s decision might make Arab American parents’ resistance to accept their kids’ sexual orientation less persistent.

However, he said to eliminate homophobia, change must come from within the community. Alaa, who is out to his family, said more gay Arabs should reveal their sexual orientation. 

“By then, families will know another aspect of their beloved one’s individuality,” he said. “Despite them refusing to embrace that aspect at the beginning, with time they will come around more compassionate, understanding and open minded.”

Ralph (not his real name) said the court’s decision adds to his pride of being American.

“I am so thankful and forever grateful to call the United States my home,” he said. “With this law, I can have equal rights and protection under the law— something that I could have never dreamed of had I still been living in the Middle East.”

In his majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy opined that marriage is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of a person.

“Under the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, couples of the same sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty,” wrote Kennedy, who was appointed to the court by President Reagan, a Republican icon.

The lawsuit brought before the high court challenged the legislative definition of marriage, in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, as a union between a man and a woman.

The Supreme Court ruled that fundamental rights, including marriage, constitutionally trump legislations that deny them.

“While the Constitution contemplates that democracy is the appropriate process for change, individuals who are harmed need not await legislative action before asserting a fundamental right,” Kennedy wrote.

The Supreme Court highlighted and stressed the importance of family and marriage in society, saying that gays and lesbians cherish those unions by pursuing them and thus should not be deprived of them.

“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family,” Kennedy opined. “It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. 

“Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”

Zahr, who is also a law professor, said the Arab American community can benefit from the legal principles reiterated by the ruling, particularly equality under the law.

For her part, Elmir quoted Martin Luther King, Jr. to relate gays’ civil rights struggle to that of Arab Americans.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”