Gay-Rights Groups Buoyed by Recent Gains
NEW YORK - The latest twists in the gay marriage debate create an oddly divided America, with only its Northeast corner and Pacific Coast recognizing same-sex unions. But gay-rights leaders are encouraged by progress on other parts of their agenda across the nation’s heartland.
Three more states - Oregon, Iowa and Colorado - have enacted laws this year outlawing anti-gay discrimination, raising the total to 20 states that account for more than half the U.S. population. Twelve of those states extend those protections to transgender people.
Elsewhere, politicians who became the first openly gay members of their state legislatures have had an impact, helping pass gay-rights bills or thwarting measures they viewed as anti-gay. In Arkansas, for example, state Rep. Kathy Webb’s heartfelt arguments played a role in the rejection of a bill to bar gays from adopting or foster-parenting.
“It makes a difference when it’s personal,” Webb said in a telephone interview. “It’s harder to ignore the evidence when it’s a friend and colleague who’s talking.”
In Dallas, openly gay city councilman Ed Oakley emerged from an 11-candidate field to reach Saturday’s runoff election for mayor. Though he lost, activists were pleased by his 42 percent support in what traditionally has been considered a conservative city.
Other trends have buoyed gay-rights leaders, including:
-Bright prospects for congressional passage of two gay-rights bills: a hate-crimes bill that would cover offenses motivated by anti-gay bias, and a measure that would outlaw workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation.
-Intensifying demands for repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bars openly gay people from serving in the military. The Bush administration supports the policy; all the Democratic presidential candidates oppose it.
-The broad repudiation of anti-gay remarks by several national figures, notably TV actor Isaiah Washington, commentator Ann Coulter and the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Peter Pace.
Gay marriage, however, remains the highest-profile issue.
Activists have been elated by some recent developments, including New Hampshire’s approval of civil unions and the 151-45 vote by Massachusetts lawmakers last week blocking a proposed ballot measure to ban gay marriage.
Massachusetts is the only state where gay marriage is legal, but nine other states have approved spousal rights in some form for same-sex couples - Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maine, California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii.
California, which now has a domestic partnership law, will probably be the next major battleground. Its legislature is expected to pass a bill this year allowing gay couples to marry, although Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he would veto it. A separate legal challenge to California’s one man-one woman marriage law is headed to the state Supreme Court.
In response, some conservative groups hope to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2008 that would ban gay marriage. Such a campaign would trigger massive spending from both sides.
“The outcome of that race will have a huge impact on how quickly we’ll be able to move forward in other states,” said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “If we lose in California, marriage equality is going to be limited to just a handful of states for the foreseeable future.”
A similar ban is expected to be on Florida’s ballot next year, although under state law it would need at least 60 percent support to prevail.
“There’s no question that’s a challenge, but we’re definitely up for it,” said John Stemberger, president of the conservative Florida Family Policy Council.
With Democrats controlling Congress, conservative leaders have scaled back their campaign for a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, and acknowledge that recent political momentum has, in many cases, not been with them.
“The homosexual lobby is receiving some payback for putting their time and resources into electing liberals to office,” said Matt Barber, cultural issues policy director for Concerned Women for America. “That lobby has managed to label anyone who’d defend marriage as bigots and homophobes.”
Looking ahead, both sides are aware of opinion polls showing that that while a majority of older Americans oppose same-sex marriage, half or more of young Americans support it. Barber blames this on gay-rights “propaganda” in the public schools and on television - resulting what he called the “Will and Grace-ification of America.”
Evan Wolfson, who heads the advocacy group Freedom to Marry, says public opinion is shifting inexorably toward recognition of same-sex couples as Americans observe the experiences of Massachusetts and states with civil unions.
“When people push past the politics and look at the reality, they realize families were helped and no one was hurt,” he said. “The other side may continue to score a few points, but I think most of them now understand they are going to lose.”
The president of the largest national gay-rights group, Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign, attributed much of the momentum on his side to the results of the 2006 election - when liberal gains led directly to the passage of gay-rights legislation in states such as New Hampshire, Iowa and Colorado.
“Fear has given way to fairness in terms of how people view these issues,” he said.
© 2007 The Associated Press.
I’m always shocked by polling on gay rights issues. As a gay man living in San Francisco, it’s easy to forget about public opinion outside our “bubble.” It’s also too easy to get caught up in political entrenchment and forget about the actual contributions of gay men and women every day.
Since my appearance on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy as a life coach (http://www.juicejointcoaching.com/news.php?nId=18), I have been focusing on the idea that gay people have a special contribution to make to the lives of straight people. Coming out of the closet has caused many of us to become more self-aware and has forced us to deal with identity issues before our straight brothers and sisters.
Facing hostility from society at large for simply being who we are, we gay men and women have had to choose live and to affirm our lives with unusual vigor. This has given us a special view of living. In honor of Gay Pride Month, I encourage straight folk to seek out gay people in your life and ask what it’s like being gay today and what coming out has been like. You will get a new appreciation for what it takes to make your way in this world, and you can receive the gifts of our hard-fought struggles to be freely ourselves.
clintgriess …
Although I recognize that “coming out” can be a profound experience for homosexual men and women, I disagree with the idea that gays “have a special contribution to make to the lives of straight people.”
Every person has a special contribution to make to one another, and this has nothing to do with their sexual orientation. Grouping other humans according to their sexual orientation, race, religion, gender etc is the very definition of fascism and I will have no part of this.
Who cares how people get their orgasm? That’s up to each individual human and we all have an equal right to live in a free and tolerant society. Like all gay men and women, your humanity is what’s important as THAT is what defines who you are; it is a flawed notion to reduce gays to their sexuality.
Do you think heterosexuals have a “special view of living” based on their sexual orientation? They don’t any more than a gay, bisexual, or asexual person does.
I understand where you’re coming from, but I also get the sense that you are profoundly more complex and greater than simply being gay.
Peace.
Thanks DrSpock.
DeSpock is right: everyone has a special contribution to make and being gay is not who I essentially am. With my inquiry, I’m attempting to see something special about being gay today, something that expresses pride this month. I’m not intending to group people by their sexual orientation as much as by their shared experiences. This is absolutely not about orgasms. It’s about the existential questions provoked by being queer that cause us to look for answers.
We’ve been told that we shouldn’t exist and that our sexuality is wrong. We have had reason to doubt the veracity of much of what we are told. Queer people are therefore skeptical of anything that will not allow the truth of our EXPERIENCE. You could say we have a built-in bullsh*t detector. This is valuable today since there’s a lot of bullsh*t in politics and religion.
This is the kind of thing I’m hoping to have people see this month. Won’t you join in the inquiry? Getting curious about gay people could offer surprising insights into your own life…oh, and fabulous parting gifts too!
I am one of those rare gay men who lives in a small town and has no gay friends. Perhaps this is why I now feel more sorry for straight people and fight against oppression of all kinds. One of the things that pushed me away from the gay movement was the fact that so many gay people were so profoundly conservative. I can’t understand why anyone would want to be so mean spirited in order to be a conservative, and I understand less why gay people want to be “Uncle Toms” and support the oppressor. But this is another issue. The idiot conservatives are pushing away a lot of money and power by pushing away gay conservatives. This is also another issue. The issue is whether we, those horrid homosexuals whom my staunchly conservative parents warned me about (between bouts of pelting me and each other), have an agenda. We do. We want to be able to walk down the street without getting the crap beaten out of us. We want to be able to get jobs and not be fired because of a rumor about us. Straight people also suffer from this form of homophobia. When one out of six hate crimes is against one of us, we can rightly feel set upon. When just asking for marriage (even if it is called something else) suggests that we are somehow tainting it and destroying it, we can justifiably feel like dirty, second class animals. Do we want to rise up and destroy culture, and supplant “normal” people with perverts? Well, for some odd biological reason, straights just seem to procreate better than we do. Oddly, and probably for equally biological reasons, kids born of gay parents and raised by them turn out to be straight (or gay) in about the same ratios as everyone in general. So, there is no “danger” of us ever being a majority. Why would gay people even remotely want to be responsible for all this horror and suffering anyway? No one can really answer the question of whether poor, non-Caucasian lesbians in male drag could rule the earth better than the rich, white, straight males in monkey suits that so bungle the job now. I am thrilled that I am not straight. I have no nasty, smelly children. I have no nattering wife, or lover either, thank you very much. Funny how this celibate status is also feared and derided by the same religious nuts who fuel the fire of the current homophobia. Perhaps THEIR agenda is to keep us all struggling and slaving to support families we really don’t want. I love my straight friends, just like they are, STRAIGHT. I am completely “out” and I do not see general homophobia among younger people. It is just a few old, senile, bitter, moribund, tight lipped bozos that are pushing this hatred. I do think gay people need both protection, at least in the current abyss of fear, and tangible recognition of equality, in the form of marriage rights. We have become a toy of the right. They see us as something to abuse to foster their agenda of fear and control. They blame us for doing exactly what they are doing, and that is changing our culture to be more exclusive and less diverse. My conservative parents lived and died as paranoid cookie cutters. I grieve for anyone who imitates THEIR lifestyle, for it is truly sick and disgusting, perverse and immoral. And, yes, they breed like rabbits. Luckily, some of their kids turn out to be gay radicals.