Left Foot First. Not surprisingly, the National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force has joined what it terms "a coalition of
progressive leaders in opposing [the] Bush War Plan." In defending
their stance, a press
release from the group hyperbolically states:
the Bush Administration has eviscerated many of the fundamental principles upon which this nation was founded and which are at the very core of our free and democratic society. Without the constitutional rights and protections now being gutted by this Administration, our GLBT movement would not be where it is today. All of us are endangered by the behavior of this Administration -- especially its use of the post-9/11 climate of fear to advance their broader political goals.
Sorry folks, but trying to paint opposition to the pending military action as a gay issue just won't wash (a few years back NGLTF opposed the big welfare reform bill, claiming it would harm lesbian single mothers). It's fine if NGLTF wants to be the lavender strip in a broad left-wing coalition, but I wish these people wouldn't pretend that they speak on behalf of a wider gay constituency. They don't.
Unequal Before the Law. The Chicago Tribune has
an
excellent overview of the sodomy law issue now before the U.S.
Supreme Court.
Among the vignettes:
During a raid last March in Jefferson County, [Missouri] police discovered six men and a woman having sex in a private theater behind an adult book store. The men were arrested for having sex with each other; the woman, who is married to one of the men, was released without charges because all of her sexual contacts in the theater were heterosexual.
Owing to the "logic" of same-sex sodomy laws, only the men were prosecuted, with their names and photographs displayed on the newscast of a local television station. As a result, their lives were horribly disrupted and, for some, marriages ruined and the ability to earn a livelihood seriously threatened. However, it's likely that even a ruling that finds sodomy laws unconstitutional won't end the police stings that routinely occur in commercial sex establishments -- including closed booths in adult video arcades. But at least it would take away one of the underpinnings used to jusify such abuses.