I disagree. I think it does fall under the 14th- here's why:
The courts have ruled that under the Equal Protection Clause, laws that infringe a fundamental right on the basis of racial or ethnic identity have to meet a very high “strict scrutiny” standard that requires that they be “narrowly tailored” to serve a “compelling” government interest. Laws that make distinctions on the basis of gender are generally required to meet a weaker, but still stringent “exacting scrutiny” standard, that requires the government to show they serve an “important” government interest.
In Loving v. Virginia the Supreme Court ruled laws banning interracial marriages were unconstitutional. In his decision Justice Warren wrote:
"Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival.To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discrimination. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State."
One could easily apply gender in place of race in that ruling.
/thread derail