Gay Marriage: Thanks But No Thanks? |

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS ADVANCED SIGNIFINTLY THE LAST 25 YEARS — NO THANKS TO CONGRS
• SENATE PASS HISTORIC GAY-MARRIAGE BILL, NO THANKS TO RICK STT AND MAR RUB
• GAY MARRIAGE: THANKS BUT NO THANKS?
• GAY MARRIAGE? NO THANKS, WE'VE GOT MORE IMPORTANT ISSU TO WORRY ABOUT
• SOME ON THE RADIL QUEER LEFT STILL THK GAY MARRIAGE IS BAD FOR THE LGBTQ COMMUNY
• GAY MARRIAGE

GAY RIGHTS ADVANCED SIGNIFINTLY THE LAST 25 YEARS — NO THANKS TO CONGRS

Senate voted on two bills alg wh gay rights. Those rults sent a clear msage to all sis of the gay rights bate: Any effort to w marriage rights natnwi faced broad ristance, but Congrs was on the cp of liverg basic civil rights 25 years sce are notable for both the progrs and lack of on those issu. Nearly half of the untry’s LGBT populatn liv plac where the right to wed appears vlate, but the risk of beg “married on Saturday and then fired on Monday for jt that act, ” as feral judge Ilana Rovner has scribed , the last quarter-century, the gay rights movement’s major policy gas were livered by a fortuo batn of succsful ligatn, rponsive urts, key polil victori a handful of largely left-leang stat and a helpful Whe Hoe.

But a 1974 bill to ban anti-gay discrimatn many of the same areas, the Equaly Act, never ma beyond a Hoe mtee or won a sgle Senate Ain Amerin legal strategists, who had first challenged Jim Crow through the urts, gay rights activists did not ially turn to the feral judiciary. The one signifint attempt to do so backfired spectacularly, when the Supreme Court led 1986 that stat uld ntue crimalizg private, nsensual sex acts solely to exprs moral disapproval of homosexualy. That precent, which wasn’t reversed until 2003, dited that any effort to e the urts to w feral civil rights protectns for gays, lbians and bisexuals might fail.

By the early 1990s, there were two openly gay members of Congrs, as many as two dozen reprentativ who saw the LGBT muny as a signifint nstuency their districts, and a Democratic ngrsnal learship generally receptive to lobbyg om tert groups like the Human Rights Campaign and the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Bill Clton beme the first print elected as a gay rights supporter, the groups dropped the amb Equaly Act for somethg that stood a better chance of passage, monstratg a prevly unseen tactil no navigatg Congrs. (A Gallup poll at the time found that 80 percent of Amerins believed gays and lbians served equal job opportuni.

SENATE PASS HISTORIC GAY-MARRIAGE BILL, NO THANKS TO RICK STT AND MAR RUB

“If ‘gay’ was gog to enter the nversatn, that’s where you wanted to have — where we had the strategic advantage, ” Daniel Zgale, then the Human Rights Campaign’s polil director, told when Democrats lost Congrs that fall, they also lost the abily to ntrol that nversatn. ), the Senate’s leadg pro-gay Democrat, a promise: If Democrats dropped their efforts to amend DOMA, Lott would schle a stand-alone vote that same day on ENDA.

10 of senators takg almost simultaneo vot on related issu om oppose angl: one to advance gay rights and one to curtail them. Morate Democrats wary of beg associated wh a gay rights bill were more willg to do so when they uld at the same time vote for a higher-profile anti-gay-rights bill.

GAY MARRIAGE: THANKS BUT NO THANKS?

For Republins, offerg gay people job protectns seemed like a most ncsn pared wh regnizg their fai. In the quarter-century sce, ngrsnal iative on gay rights has been srce. A new Equaly Act was troduced 2015 to wre sexual orientatn and genr inty to the Civil Rights Act; appears stuck the the meantime, marriage rights graduated om a lol Hawaii issue to a natnal e, richetg through state pals until feral urts — now more sympathetic to gay rights s than they were two s earlier — were fally forced to reckon wh .

Clayton County that gay men, lbians, bisexuals and transgenr people were already vered by the Civil Rights Act’s cln of “sex” as a forbidn tegory for job discrimatn. The Senate's 50 Democrats were joed by 12 Republins — a seemgly clear reflectn of a natnal trend toward acceptance of gay marriage. LGBT is still a popular term ed to discs genr and sexual mori, but all GSRM are wele beyond lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people who nsent to participate a safe space.

I’m om New York Cy, and I was celebratg my birthday the night that the Marriage Equaly Act passed, signalg that gay marriage would be legalized the state of New York. The timg uldn’t have been more perfect: wh NYC Pri that same weekend, the cy was poised to celebrate a signifint achievement for gay and lbian equaly not only for our state, but for our untry.

GAY MARRIAGE? NO THANKS, WE'VE GOT MORE IMPORTANT ISSU TO WORRY ABOUT

In “Competg Universali, ” Judh Butler argu that the fight for gay marriage (and gay upl’ adoptg, laws ncerng gay and lbian participatn the ary, and other policized issu regardg grantg non-heterosexual bodi the rights that straight bodi’ have) is a fight that ultimately aims to serve the domant orr. And yet, was difficult to celebrate a moment that would simultaneoly help to further discrimate agast and alienate those gays, lbians, and other bodi whose relatns and practic don’t participate , or f to, the stutnally sanctned mos of beg that are ultimately the service of those same stutns. Steps for gay and lbian rights the name of equaly often e at the st of further margalizg any gays and lbians who refe those same “rights.

” How might focg on rights that grant accs to stutnal domas distract om a) directg our energi towards other gay rights efforts and b) the fact that the stutn may be implementg the sire for this accs to beg wh? How many gays, " Gerry Murray asks as he stands centre floor this small but very morn hairdrsg salon, ". They are themselv quietly nservative, if rather outrageo humour, and thk there are few thgs the wir gay muny of ls tert to them than a flntg gay para.

SOME ON THE RADIL QUEER LEFT STILL THK GAY MARRIAGE IS BAD FOR THE LGBTQ COMMUNY

"What is important, the two feel, is that the legali of such a unn, whatever might be lled, apply to those a homosexual relatnship as clearly and surely as they do to those a heterosexual relatnship. Interr clare Gay Pri very notn of displays and paras and a special day outraged the two hairdrsers. Early Years: Same-Sex Marriage Bans In 1970, jt one year after the historic Stonewall Rts that galvanized the gay rights movement, law stunt Richard Baker and librarian Jam McConnell applied for a marriage license Gerald Nelson rejected their applitn bee they were a same-sex uple, and a trial urt upheld his cisn.

” This lg effectively blocked feral urts om lg on same-sex marriage for s, leavg the cisn solely the hands of stat, which alt blow after blow to those hopg to see gay marriage beg 1973, for stance, Maryland beme the first state to create a law that explicly f marriage as a unn between a man and woman, a belief held by many nservative relig groups. Though the gay rights movement saw some advancements the 1970s and 1980s—such as Harvey Milk beg the first openly gay man elected to public office the untry 1977—the fight for gay marriage ma ltle headway for many years.

GAY MARRIAGE

In 1989, the San Francis Board of Supervisors passed an ordance that allowed homosexual upl and unmarried heterosexual upl to register for domtic partnerships, which granted hospal visatn rights and other years later, the District of Columbia siarly passed a new law that allowed same-sex upl to register as domtic partners.

C., 1993, the hight urt Hawaii led that a ban on same-sex marriage may vlate that state nstutn’s Equal Protectn Clse—the first time a state urt has ever ched toward makg gay marriage Hawaii Supreme Court sent the se—brought by a gay male uple and two lbian upl who were nied marriage licens 1990—back for further review to the lower First Circu Court, which 1991 origally dismissed the the state tried to prove that there was “pellg state tert” jtifyg the ban, the se would be tied up ligatn for the next three Defense of Marriage Act Opponents of gay marriage, however, did not s on their hnch. Congrs 1996 passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which Print Bill Clton signed to didn’t ban gay marriage outright but specified that only heterosexual upl uld be granted feral marriage benefs.

That is, even if a state ma gay marriage legal, same-sex upl still wouldn’t be able to file e tax jotly, sponsor spo for immigratn benefs or receive spoal Social Secury payments, among many other act was a huge setback for the marriage equaly movement, but transient good news arose three months later: Hawaii Judge Kev S. Phg for Change: Civil Unns The next saw a whirlwd of activy on the gay marriage ont, begng wh the year 2000 when Vermont beme the first state to legalize civil unns, a legal stat that provis most of the state-level benefs of years later, Massachetts beme the first state to legalize gay marriage when the Massachetts Supreme Court led that same-sex upl had the right to marry Goodridge v. The state fally troduced the untry to gay marriage (m the feral benefs) when began issug same-sex marriage licens on May 17, that year, the U.