Hoe Unanimoly Pass $67 Milln “Gay Reparatns” Tax Bill ⋆ Elizabeth Johnston

Contents:

• HOUSE PASSES “GAY-REPARATIONS BILL” TO ALLOW MILLIONS IN TAX REFUNDS FOR SAME-SEX COUPLES
• GAY REPARATNS ARE PAST DUE
• GAY REPARATNS? ELIZABETH WARREN TRODUC BILL TO PAY CERTA SAME-SEX UPL
• DEMOCRATS CELEBRATE PASSG OF ‘GAY REPARATNS’ TAX BILL
• HOE UNANIMOLY PASS $67 MILLN “GAY REPARATNS” TAX BILL
• WARREN TRODUC BILL TO UNLOCK LNS TAX REFUNDS NIED TO GAY UPL
• DEMOCRAT HOE UNANIMOLY OKS ‘GAY REPARATNS’ BILL GIVG TAX REFUNDS TO SAME-SEX UPL
• ELIZABETH WARREN INTRODUCED A BILL TO PAY GAY REPARATNS
• THIS RSIAN ANTI-GAY BILL IS NOTHG SHORT OF MEDIEVAL BARBARY
• RSIAN ANTI-GAY BILL PASS, PROTTERS TAED

HOUSE PASSES “GAY-REPARATIONS BILL” TO ALLOW MILLIONS IN TAX REFUNDS FOR SAME-SEX COUPLES

C., an anizatn that tak s name om the pre–Stonewall era group that sought to advance gay civil rights, the rolutn was spired by prev official apologi Amerin history, cludg the Acknowledgement and Regret for the Che Excln Laws (2012), an apology to Japane-Amerins sent to ternment mps durg World War II (1988), and the apologi issued to Ain Amerins for slavery and Jim Crow by the US Hoe of Reprentativ and the US Senate 2008 and 2009, rpectively. Among the episos the history of anti-gay discrimatn and vlence the Uned Stat for which the Mattache Society is seekg an apology om the Amerin ernment is the arrt of 1 ln gay men (one every 10 mut) om the end of World War II through the 1960s on a wi range of cency charg, cludg sodomy, dancg, kissg, or holdg hands.

There’s also the Lavenr Sre, the mid-century wch hunt triggered by Print Eisenhower’s 1953 executive orr that rulted the firg of some 10, 000 feral workers on the spicn of homosexualy.

Elizabeths, an unknown number of feral workers spected of homosexualy were subjected, agast their will, to barbaric and experimental therapi such as lobotomi and sul-duced as wh the tensn of erasg or alterg same-sex attractn. The extent to which many Amerins are faiar wh official anti-gay discrimatn is likely limed to “don’t ask don’t tell, ” the famo 1993 policy that allowed gays and lbians to serve the ary as long as they kept their sexual orientatn a secret.

GAY REPARATNS ARE PAST DUE

Bee Amerins know so ltle about the profound history of anti-LGBTQ discrimatn the Uned Stat, ’s not surprisg that there has been never been a natnal discsn about gay reparatns.

Based on the experience of natns like Spa, Bra, and Germany, gay reparatns are bt unrstood as polici tend to make amends for a history of systemic anti-gay discrimatn.

GAY REPARATNS? ELIZABETH WARREN TRODUC BILL TO PAY CERTA SAME-SEX UPL

But the movement is not one-size-fs-all; nor is driven by gay people mandg fancial pensatn simply for claimg an LGBTQ inty, as some fo of the gay muny have ntend. Instead, the gay reparatns movement enpass a small but eclectic nstellatn of approach to repairg the damage done by state-sponsored anti-gay discrimatn and vlence, wh each approach entailg s own polici and philosophil emphas for how to repair that damage. There’s also “pensatn, ” which entails fancial payment to the victims of anti-gay discrimatn for the loss of wag and pensns that may have rulted om time spent prison or a mental stutn bee of homophobic laws and polici.

Roundg out gay reparatns are “remembrance, ” or the memoratn of past events of anti-gay discrimatn and reprsn, such as Germany’s memorial to the homosexual men who perished ncentratn mps (the so-lled “Gay Holot), and “tth-tellg, ” which mands a state-sanctned narrative that speaks of systemic abe toward the gay muny. The current reckong wh racial jtice should remd Amerins that racism and homophobia have always traveled hand--hand Amerin history, a pot unrsred by the propensy of whe supremacists to label civil rights lears “homos” and “queers.

It’s not yet known whether Senate Majory Lear Mch McConnell will allow to e up for a vote, or whether Print Donald Tmp, who is nservative on some LGBT issu but supportssame-sex “marriage” and homosexual “pri, ” would sign to law. Warren don’t mentn to people is the IRS already allows everyone to amend the last three years of returns, ” Tammy Bce, a Fox News ntributor and gay nservative, wrote last month.

DEMOCRATS CELEBRATE PASSG OF ‘GAY REPARATNS’ TAX BILL

“Instead, she wants upl to be able to amend their tax returns for the entire time they were married one of the 10 stat allowg gay marriage prr to feral regnn. It may seem surprisg to Amerin rears, but one of the most vibrant human rights movements around the world today is “gay reparatns, ” or polici tend to make amends for the legacy of systemic discrimatn on the basis of sexual orientatn and genr inty.

A gay pri flag hangs at half-staff durg a memorial service for the victims of Florida’s Pulse nightclub shootg San Diego, California, on June 12, 2016. In most untri, gay reparatns are limed to a ernment apology to the LGBTQ muny for past wrongs and a promise to do better the future. In 2008, the German ernment opened a monument to gay victims of the Holot, an unknown number whom perished Nazi ncentratn mps, many of them victims of gome medil experiments tend to eradite their homosexualy.

In still other untri, gay reparatns have centered on a pardon to anyone nvicted unr laws that crimalized same-sex attractn, as the Uned Kgdom, which 2017 issued a posthumo pardon to those nvicted of “gross cency, ” cludg Alan Turg, the mathematician creded wh shorteng the end of World War II; or even fancial pensatn for wag or pensns lost due to havg spent time prison or a mental stutn bee of a homosexual offense, as Spa sce 2009 and Germany sce 2016. The clost the untry has e to embracg gay reparatns was 2019, when, on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall rts, the New York Police Department issued a belated apology for the raid that triggered the rebelln.

HOE UNANIMOLY PASS $67 MILLN “GAY REPARATNS” TAX BILL

Surely, the absence of gay reparatns—or even a discsn of them— the Uned Stat is not out of a rosy history ee of systemic discrimatn toward the LGBTQ muny, although a valid argument n be ma that this history is not particularly well known, save, perhaps, for “don’t ask, don’t tell. ” That famo 1993 policy allowed gays, lbians, and bisexuals to serve the ary as long as they kept their sexual orientatn a secret. Des before “don’t ask, don’t tell, ” om the 1920s through at least the 1960s, there was the policy of “entrapment, ” which volved unrver police officers sendg flirtat signals to other men they prumed to be homosexual the hop of ensnarlg them to illic activy.

Acrdg to the historian Eric Cervi’s book The Deviant’s War, War, which is about gay rights pneer Frank Kameny, the 15 years after World War II, “homosexual arrts—cludg those for sodomy, dancg, kissg, or holdg hands—occurred at the rate of one every ten mut, ” for a grand total of 1 ln arrts.

WARREN TRODUC BILL TO UNLOCK LNS TAX REFUNDS NIED TO GAY UPL

Perhaps as many as 10, 000 people were fired or expelled om their feral jobs durg the 1950s and 1960s bee they were homosexual or spected of beg homosexual based on evince as flimsy as how they drsed, talked, or looked. C., where they were forced to unrgo such humanizg treatments as lobotomi, sul-duced as, and gay nversn therapy, wh the aim of changg their sexual orientatn.

DEMOCRAT HOE UNANIMOLY OKS ‘GAY REPARATNS’ BILL GIVG TAX REFUNDS TO SAME-SEX UPL

Supreme Court lg that upheld the state of Geia’s sodomy laws, the urt termed that the Constutn did not protect the rights of gays, lbians, and bisexuals to engage private, nsensual sexual relatns, bee, the jtic nclud, homosexual sex has no nnectn to fay, marriage, abortn, or procreatn. Burger quoted the 18th-century English jurist William Blackstone’s characterizatn of homosexual sex as an “famo crime agast nature, ” worse than rape, and “a crime not f to be named. Acts of state-sponsored anti-gay discrimatn sent an unambiguo msage to ordary Amerins that was acceptable to mean and monize LGBTQ people, and even to engage acts of vlence agast them.

The famo and bloody history of societal attacks on the Amerin LGBTQ muny clus sger and spokperson Ana Bryant’s 1977 Save Our Children csa, which picted gay men as pedophil; Evangelist Jerry Falwell’s “claratn of war” on homosexualy, a rhetoril tactic employed durg the 1980s to raise funds for Falwell’s Moral Majory anizatn; and the 2016 attack on Pulse, a gay nightclub Orlando, Florida. Prr to Pulse, there was the now largely fotten 1973 arson fire at Upstairs, a gay bar New Orleans’ French Quarter, which left 32 people ad.

ELIZABETH WARREN INTRODUCED A BILL TO PAY GAY REPARATNS

Left: Sger and anti-gay activist Ana Bryant talks about her “Save Our Children” csa to nullify a gay rights ordance Miami Beach, Florida, on Feb.

The apology me wh a multiln-dollar payout to pensate victims of the “gay purge, ” those fired om the ary bee of their sexual orientatn, and thorized a memorial to the victims of those persecuted for their sexual orientatn the pal cy of Ottawa. An obv factor behd the layed arrival of gay reparatns the Uned Stat is that the subject of reparatns is particularly vexg Amerin society, stemmg om the still-unsettled legacy of slavery and om racism.

Some crics of gay reparatns such as the nservative polil mentator Michael Medved have mataed that gay people are not servg of reparatns bee unlike Black Amerins, gay people are not victims of multigeneratnal damage, meang that whatever ills homophobia may have ed the past, the ills are not the same as those left behd by slavery, as they do not rry over om generatn to generatn. Medved also pots to the enomic succs of some the Amerin LGBTQ muny (which has generated the mythil notn that LGBTQ Amerins are more affluent than the populatn at large) as a reason for why gay reparatns are rndant.

THIS RSIAN ANTI-GAY BILL IS NOTHG SHORT OF MEDIEVAL BARBARY

As argued by a wrer for the right-wg webse RedState, gay reparatns would allow for reparatn claims by the “obe, the disfigured, the disabled, the short, the bald, ” and also by “[m]igrants who weren’t treated kdly when they tried to enter the U. Gay reparatns movements abroad, pecially Spa, Bra, and Germany—untri that pneered the gay reparatns movement—have waged their stggl as a human rights csa. Inspired by human rights activism, gay reparatns activists have emphasized the need for reparatns as a moral obligatn tend to rtore digny to LGBTQ people.

They have also leveraged historil narrativ of homosexual reprsn to fluence public opn and policy toward the LGBTQ muny, such as the opprsn of gays and lbians unr Nazi Germany or unr the homophobic laws of the Francis Fran regime Spa, and shamed public officials for failg to stand up for the human rights of LGBTQ people. That latter argument me to be known as “the nservative se for gay marriage, ” which ntend that Amerin society, cludg nservativ, should support same-sex marriage bee would bolster tradnal valu. Framg the stggle for same-sex marriage around such most goals as strengtheng homosexual hoeholds wasted a great opportuny to engage society a broad bate about the role of LGBTQ people society.

RSIAN ANTI-GAY BILL PASS, PROTTERS TAED

It also ma harr for gay activists to expand the stggle for LGBTQ rights beyond marriage and to such areas as transgenr rights and gay reparatns.

Asi om rtorg digny to the victims of state-sponsored polici of anti-gay discrimatn and vlence, gay reparatns hold the promise of puttg an end to the history of opprsn of LGBTQ people while remdg future generatns of the sacrific and stggl that me before them. "Warren troduced a bill last week — lled the "Refund Equaly Act" — that would perm gay married uple to amend past tax returns to receive the addnal tax breaks they would have received had they been allowed to file tax jotly wh their partner. Warren's re-troductn me amid mastream media lls for "gay reparatn, or polici tend to addrs the legacy of state-sanctned reprsn of homosexuals.

There are still 71 untri that crimalise nsensual gay sex — half of which are Commonwealth natns — but thankfully this number is gog down. They n also clu memorialisg the victims of state-sponsored reprsn of gays, as Germany did 2008 when unveiled a memorial to gay victims of the Holot.