First appeared May 4, 2000, in The Weekly News (Miami).
America is a schizoid nation, as I've commented before. But lately, the number of events indicating progress in the struggle for gay and lesbian equality - right alongside those indicating the persistence of anti-gay intransigence and backlash - has presented a startling contrast. More and more, when it comes to acceptance and support of its lesbian and gay citizens, America seems like two nations, divided and unequal. Let me show you what I mean.
Progress: On April 26, Vermont's Gov. Howard Dean signed into law a bill creating "civil unions," a legal structure parallel to marriage for gay and lesbian couples. The landmark legislation extends to same-sex couples the same state law protections and responsibilities available to spouses in a marriage. The significance of this breakthrough, I believe, has not yet been fully grasped. Over the coming years, the Vermont model will be the new benchmark in the fight for legal equality and first-class citizenship.
Backlash: 32 states, including California, have passed laws denying recognition to same-sex marriages. And the federal Defense of Marriage Act, passed with bipartisan support (including the backing of Al Gore and Bill Clinton), denies same-sex couples all benefits available to married couples under federal law in areas such as taxes, Social Security, and immigration.
Backlash: In Georgia, a mother is being held in "willful contempt" by a county judge because she lives with her same-sex partner. Jean Ann Vawter and her partner participated in a religious commitment ceremony in 1996. But last year Ms. Vawter's ex-husband charged her with violating their divorce agreement by exposing the couple's children to her lesbian relationship; a Walton County judge subsequently ruled the relationship was "unwholesome" and ordered that Ms. Vawter and her children leave the home they have shared with her partner for more than four years. The same week that Vermont's legislature approved civil unions, Ms. Vawter filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Georgia, asking that the state allow her to keep her family intact.
Backlash: On May 3, Mississippi became the third state, after Florida and Utah, to legally ban same-sex couples from adopting children. After the Mississippi Senate gave final, unanimous approval to the anti-gay bill, Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, a Democrat, signed the measure into law, supporters said the legislation was spurred in part by Vermont's new law giving same-sex couples the benfits of marriage. Similar bans on gay adoptions are pending in other states.
Progress: Nationwide, a growing number of localities and businesses now offer some form of domestic partnership benefits, usually including health care coverage, to the same-sex partners of their employees.
Backlash: Again, the same week that Vermont approved civil unions, the Virginia Supreme Court unanimously struck down a law in Arlington County (across the river from Washington, D.C.) that gave health insurance benefits to the domestic partners of local government employees. Voting 7 to 0, the court held that, on technical grounds, the benefits plan was "not a reasonable method of implementing [the county's] applied authority." A concurring opinion signed by three justices stated that "there can be no question that Arlington County seeks to recognize, tacitly, relationships that are violative of the public policy of this commonwealth." Virginia, like several other conservative states, still has a "sodomy law" on its books that technically makes felons of consenting adults who engage in same-sex relations in the privacy of their homes.
The conservative Family Foundation, which paid for the legal challenge to the Arlington County benefits plan, celebrated its overthrow. "Obviously, this is a victory for Virginia families," crowed the group's press release. Just how denying health benefits to same-sex partners in committed relationships might strengthen Virginia families was not explained.
Progress: According to a trends report from advertising giant Young & Rubicam, "Gay men and lesbians are increasingly finding themselves the focus of savvy marketers' attention," and gay-marketing consultants are increasingly helping mainstream firms reach these consumers. Ad revenues at gay publications rose 20 percent last year. It has now become acceptable for companies to openly solicit gay consumers as a desirable market segment without fearing repercussions from anti-gay forces.
Backlash: The gay left is appalled at corporate sponsorship of gay events, including the Millennium March on Washington. In an interview with wired.com, Alexandra Chasen, author of "Selling Out," a book condemning corporate influence on the gay community, says: "People think, 'They're advertising to us, then they must like us' ... That's dangerous." David Elliot of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force complains, "When these corporations advertise, they'll most likely show only middle-class white gay men." And an article in the left-wing magazine Mother Jones frets, "Are queers subverting capitalism? Or is it the other way around?"
Progress: Corey Johnson, the co-captain of a suburban Massachusetts high school football team, let it be known that he's gay and, afterwards, found support from his teammates. His coach, with the cooperation of the school's administration, arranged for a team meeting. Johnson stood in front of his fellow athletes and told them, "Guys, I called this meeting because I have something I really want to tell all of you. ... The reason I'm telling you all is because I don't want you hearing it from somebody else. I'm coming out as an openly gay man." His teammates and classmates rallied around the popular 17-year-old. Johnson noted that the high school's Gay-Straight Alliance has been a major plus. In March, Boston's Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network bestowed its Visionary Award on Johnson and his teammates.
Backlash: The Salt Lake City School District continues to forbid students from forming a high school club to discuss gay and lesbian issues. In 1996, after students proposed a support group for gay, lesbian, and bisexual students, the Salt Lake City School District banned all "nonacademic" clubs, and in 1998 a federal judge upheld the ban. A new lawsuit has been brought by students trying to form a student club with an explicit academic tie to history, sociology, government and biology classes, since it would look at homosexual perspectives on all those subjects. The assistant superintendent in charge of approving academic clubs refused the application because, in her words, the impact, experience, and contributions of gays and lesbians are "not taught in the courses you cite," and thus the club was not adequately related to curriculum. Apparently, filling in the gaps left by teachers who can't or won't discuss gay and lesbian issues is, in Salt Lake City, not a legitimate academic purpose.
Progress: For the first time, a major GOP presidential contender - John McCain - actively courted gay voters. Even the party establishment's nominee - George W. - finally agreed to meet with a dozen openly gay supporters and said he was a "better person" for listening to their stories. Nationwide, the number of lesbians and gay men holding elective office continues to advance, from school boards up to the US Congress, where Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Barney Frank (D-Mass.), and Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) are "out." The mayors of Tempe, Ariz., and Plattsburgh, N.Y., are openly gay men (and Republicans!).
Backlash: A gay-bashing Republican National Committee fundraising letter warned, "If a liberal Democrat is elected president and has a liberal majority in Congress, you can also bet our government will be endorsing the homosexual lifestyle before too long." The letter arrived in mailboxes the same day Bush told Republican gays, "I welcome gay Americans into my campaign."
Schizoid nation, indeed! Perhaps it will ultimately prove a good thing to fight the thousands of small fights for legal equality county by county, district by district, and state by state. That's how hearts and minds are turned, after all. So, in one sense, the gains that gays have made in some jurisdictions represent a triumph for pluralism and diversity, and for localities acting as "laboratories of democracy."
But there's a darker side as well. What does it do to a nation's sense of itself when one state grants spousal rights, while another forbids same-sex adoption or stops a county from granting partner's benefits? Or when students in one state are protected against anti-gay harassment and supported by administrators, while another state won't even tolerate the existence of a gay-straight alliance? How long can a house divided stand?
Here's hoping that sooner, rather than later, something's got to give.