One wonders why gay marriage has become less explosive of an issue. Since Stonewall the gay rights movement has made huge strides towards equal treatment under the law. Gays have been in the news regularly, especially since Rock Hudson came out of the closet and disclosed that he had AIDS. That single act by an American icon did more for AIDS research and gay rights than any other since the June 1969 Stonewall riots in
As gay culture has been semi-blended with mainstream culture in this country, more gay people are coming out to friends and relatives. It is also easier to come out of the closet and into a far gay-friendlier society than 40 years ago. It’s like families are suddenly discovering their gay members. I heard someone say the other day that there’s hardly a family anymore without a gay member. Add to that those who have gay friends or otherwise know someone who is gay. The more gay people are known as just regular people the less of an issue gay marriage becomes. “Hey, they’re two people in love. Why shouldn’t they get married?!” is the reason most cited by straights who simply don’t care any more. No big deal. Bet they have a gay, lesbian or transgendered family member or friend.
The right wing has even moved on. Proposition 8 in
So it was the gay rights movement begun at Stonewall that directly contributed to the state by state, almost ho-hum legalization of gay marriage. Gay marriage need not be sanctioned on a federal level. The states will decide as they wish and, as in many cases of personal rights, will take a broader view than that of the federal government and Constitution.
[A legal aside: Each state has its own constitution which may grant broader rights but cannot grant fewer rights than the federal Constitution. The court of last resort for questions of interpretation of a state law is that state’s highest court, constrained only by the federal and the state’s constitutions.]
While mostly a sop to his gay voting bloc, President Obama did extend some limited rights to the gay partners of federal employees. While opponents of gay marriage can no longer muster support for a Constitutional amendment, the Obama administration must take more deliberate strides to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. The Obama Justice Department’s recent defense of the DOMA in federal court was at least as much overkill as that presented by the Bush’s Justice Department – graphic, gratuitous overkill.
If “Don’t Ask / Don’t Tell” ever made sense, the sense fell by the wayside shortly after its enactment by a spineless Bill Clinton in the first major decision of his presidency. As noted by a cable news commentator, those doing the fear-the-fag mongering are the older members of our armed forces – the very same colonels and generals who influence the fate of DADT. The younger generation in our military couldn’t care less about a fellow soldier’s sexual orientation. What a soldier does care about is trusting another soldier with his life. President Obama needs to do away with DADT. It is a non-issue in the ranks and deprives our military of dedicated soldiers.
From an underground culture, to a riot at Christopher Street’s Stonewall Inn, to dedicated efforts pushing for equal treatment, to AIDS, to gay public figures’ coming out, to far greater acceptance of gays by mainstream society, to state sanctioned marriage.
I attended the early Gay Pride Day marches in
We’ve come a long way in 40 years.
The 1994 Pride march:
http://aboutnothing-doug.blogspot.com/2008/07/gay-pride-day-1994-new-york-city.html
***
No comments:
Post a Comment