Fighting For Equality

The LGBT community along with allies have been fighting for equality long before the 1970’s and the era of Harvey Milk. This period with the openly gay politician and activist Harvey Milk were days where the LGBT community was very active. In the early 1980’s, when the AIDs epidemic was at its peak, homophobia and discrimination increased; pushing the LGBT community back into the closet. In 1998, the hatred and fear of the LGBT community escalated; resulting in the torture and murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard in Wyoming. More recently in 2008, Proposition 8 in California eliminated the ability for same-sex couples to marry. While this was a loss to the LGBT community in California, it spurred change across the nation.

Washington D.C. is becoming a great proponent in change. The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009 has been introduced in Washington D.C. Which would allow same-sex couples to be legally married in D.C. when currently D.C. only recognizes same-sex marriages from other states. This amendment provides hope for gay marriage in both D.C. and potentially on a national level.

Washington D.C. is not a state; it is a district of Congress which means that all city laws must be approved by Congress in order of them to take effect. If Congress approves same-sex marriage in D.C., Congress will implicitly show its support for same-sex marriage. Government officials and policymaker will be forced to clearly express an opinion either for or against same-sex marriage in a vote. In the past, the topic of same-sex marriage has been a touchy and taboo subject and therefore little consensus has been reached on the issue. The vote of the Washington City Council Ordinance will force Congress to reach a definitive consensus.

By no means does this mean that same-sex marriage will be legal nationwide, but steps are being taken in the right direction. On November 3, Maine voted 53-47 to repeal gay marriage, a similar result to what occurred in California with Proposition 8.

In his campaign, Barack Obama promised to get rid of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, yet it is still in place. Obama has been busy pushing his health care agenda, however, the rights of LGBT citizens have been put on the back burner throughout history. Now it is time for action to be taken and for LGBT citizens to have the right to marry. Currently Belgium, Canada, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands have legalized same-sex marriage and recognize the union. In the United States, only Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire (which will be effective in January 2010), Washington D.C. and New York recognize the union but do not perform marriages between same-sex couples. Many other countries recognize civil unions and registered partnerships including Iceland, New Zealand, Finland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Greenland, Andorra, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Hungary, Luxembourg, New Caledonia, Slovenia, United Kingdom, and Uruguay.

California is not on this list, due to the passing of Proposition 8. On a whole, California is a liberal state and yet same-sex marriage is not legal here. This illustrates the divide among residents of California. Here, in the Bay Area, Proposition 8 or similar legislation would pass by a landslide. However, there are pockets of California that are not as liberal as Albany and the rest of the Bay Area. I ask, “What is up with the rest of California?” How is it that Iowa and other more “conservative” states are passing same-sex marriage laws? Proposition 8 should not have passed overwhelmingly; but, due to the exclusion of minorities in advertisements and other factors, same-sex marriage was repealed.

With Washington D.C’s movement to legalize same-sex there is a vast opportunity for change in current legislation. Hopefully it will spur the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide. With Congress’s approval there is much hope for same-sex marriage to be legalized nationwide.

One Response

1. 11:47 AM on December 18th, 2009jerry pritikin:

   THE gays of the 50’s and 60’s was not a community, and there were few if any organizations, with the exception of the Mattachine(mispelled) and SIR- Society of Individual Rights.
   The gay movement in the 70’s in S.F. was helped because we had Mayor Moscone, for 2 years before Harvey was elected…
   The Gay Newspapers and Sports organizations became popular. Many members, like myself and Harvey, had left our hometowns…and made it easier for us to be openly gay

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