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Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Boomer with Attitude / News Gay rights: a big loss, but some wins, too
Posted By John Grooms on Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 2:06 PM
Yesterday, Chapel Hill elected its first openly gay mayor, Mark Kleinschmidt. He ran a strong grassroots campaign to become the third openly gay man to hold mayoral office in the state, in addition to Carrboro’s Mike Nelson and Franklinton’s Elic Senter.
Two steps forward, a step back, a step forward, a step back. So far, that’s been the story of the struggle for gay rights, with a slow, gradual movement toward equal treatment. The most publicized gay rights vote in the nation took place in Maine, where voters repealed a state law that would have allowed same-sex couples to wed. It was a tough loss for gay rights advocates, particularly in a section of the country that has, overall, been supportive of LGBT issues. Frank Schubert, chief organizer for the repeal forces, said, "The institution of marriage has been preserved in Maine and across the nation." No, Frank, the institution of marriage has been preserved for the use of straight people in Maine. That’s all.
Meanwhile, in a less publicized referendum, voters in Washington state approved an expansion of the state's domestic partnership law, which grants registered domestic partners additional state-granted rights currently given only to married couples, such as using sick leave to care for a domestic partner, and rights related to adoption, child custody and child support. Activists in that state called it the “everything but marriage” law. And, also, a gay rights anti-discrimination law was passed by voters in the Midwestern city with the great name, Kalamazoo, Michigan.
As The Man once said, "The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."
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